(, PAUL KOEHLER J 


B BUCHHANDLER WANTIQUAR 
LEIPZIGO 5 


asinet 


i 


See 


FUNERARY URN FROM A ZAPOTECAN TOMB 


The cylindrical urn is concealed behind the human figure. The dress 
of the human figure consists of a cape, apron, and a widespreading head- 
dress. Over the face is worn a mask. Height, 1514 inches. 


AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 
OF 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


(S): 0 

5 =) of o 

—— *, —, 

NY 

"pw = 3 
Y) 


Preaen BERT. SPINDEN 


FORMERLY ASSISTANT CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 


HANDBOOK SERIES No. 3 
THIRD AND REVISED EDITION 


NEW YORK 
1928 


PREFACE 


mentary and explanation of the more impor- 

tant phases of the ancient life and arts of the 
Indians of Mexico and Central America, and espe- 
cially of their history. The substance of it is drawn 
from many sources, for the anthropologist must 
mould together and harmonize the gross results of 
several sciences. Archeology, ethnology, somatol- 
ogy, and linguistics all make their special contribu- 
tions and we are only on the threshold of our sub- 
ject. In the Mexican and Central American field we 
find the accumulated writings that result from four 
hundred years of European contact with the Indians 
and in addition a mass of native documents and 
monumental inscriptions expressed in several hiero- 
olyphic systems. 

The general method of this book will be to take 
up in order the recognized ‘‘horizons’’ of pre- 
Columbian history, beginning with the earliest of 
which we have knowledge. In relation to each hori- 
zon we will examine the records and discuss the 
principal developments in arts, beliefs, and social 
structures. The introductory chapter is designed 
to put before the reader such facts as may be neces- 
sary for a ready understanding of the discussions 
and explanations that will follow. 

The Mexican Hall of the American Museum of 
Natural History furnishes illustrations of most of 
the facts given herewith. This Hall contains both 
originals and casts brought together by various 
expeditions of the Museum and of other scientific 
institutions. The principal patrons of science 


5 


(ee little book is intended as a general com- 


6 PREFACE 


whose names should be mentioned in connection 
with the upbuilding of these collections are: Willard 
Brown, Austin Corbin, R. P. Doremus, Anson W. 
Hard, Archer M. Huntington, Morris K. Jesup, 
James H. Jones, Minor C. Keith, the Duke of 
Loubat, William Mack, Henry Marquand, Doctor 
William Pepper, A. D. Straus, I. Mel. Strong, Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt, Henry Villard, William C. Whit- 
ney. But thanks are also due to innumerable per- 
sons who have contributed single specimens and 
small collections as well as those who have placed 
information at the disposal of the scientific staff. 
The principal collectors have been: George Byron 
Gordon, Ales Hrdlicka, Carl Lumholtz, Francis C. 
Nicholas, Marshall H. Saville, Eduard Seler, Her- 
bert J. Spinden, and John L. Stephens. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
PREFACE - : ‘ : : : ® ; ; ; 5 
INTRODUCTION : : ; : z : ¢ : 13 


Geography and Natural Environment. History of European 
Contact. Languages. Ethnology. Physical Types. 


GHAPTER<I 
THE ARCHAIC HORIZON ; 3 c a 5 : 45 


Stratification of Remains. The Cemetery under the Lava. 
Invention of Agriculture. Archaic Figurines. Ancient Cus- 
toms. Archaic Pottery. Stone Sculptures of the Archaic 
Period. Extensions of the Archaic Horizon, 


CHAPTER il 
THe MAYAN CIVILIZATION . : : : : : : : ‘Les 


Architecture. Massive Sculptural Art. Minor Arts. The 
Serpent in Mayan Art. The Human Figure. Design, Com- 
position, and Perspective. The Mayan Pantheon. How 
Mayan History has been Recovered. Sequences in Art. 
Books of Chilam Balam. The Mayan Time Counts. Ele- 
ments of the Day Count. The Conventional Year. The 
Calendar Round. Mayan Numbers. The Long Count. Dates 
of Dedication. Hieroglyphs.  Codices. Correlation with 
Christian Chronology. The Mayan Eras. Astronomical 
Checks on the Correlation. Astronomical Observatories. 
The True Year. The Lunar Calendar. Venus Calendar. 
Summary of Mayan History. 


CHAPTER III 


Tue MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS > ; : Z z : > 2153 


The Olmeca or Rubber People. Zapotecan Culture. Mitla. 
Totonacan Culture. The Toltecs. Quetzalcoatl and _ the 
Toltec Era. San Juan Teotihuacan. kXochicaleo. Tula. 
Cholula. The Frontier Cities of the Northwest. Santa 
Lucia Cozumalhualpa. The Chorotegan Culture. Isthmian 
Gold Work. 


CHA DT Hy IV 


THE AZTECS : Z F i , < 5 “ A Fe 2OL 


Mayas and Aztecs compared to Greeks and Romans. The 
Chichimecas. Aztecan History. Social Organization. The 
Tecpan or Temple Enclosure. The Calendar Stone. Stone 
of Tizoc. Coatlicue. Mexican Writing. Aztecan Religion. 
Conceptions of the Universe. Ceremonies. Poetry and_Mu- 
sic. Minor Aztecan Arts. The Tarascans. Southern Mex- 
ico. Aztecan Influence in Central America. 


A. Cross-SEcTION oF NEw Wor.up HIStory a ‘ - . 249 
BIBLIOGRAPHY : x 5 ; - : : # ¢ A PAS 
INDEX . 5 : : ' F : é ; . : oo OD 


MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 


PaGs. 
Funerary Urn from’a Zapotecan Tomb. ss .%. <7. 202. eee eee Frontispiece 
Map of Mexico and Central America showing the Principal Archaeological 
Sites with a Detail Insert of the Valley of Mexico ........ Facing 45 
Diagram of American Chronology: (2. = .s.s) eee Facing 253 
PLATES 
I. a, Village Scene in Arid Mexico; 6, In the Humid Lowlands. . ... 15 
II. a, Site of Pueblo Viejo, the First Capital of Guatemala; b, A Spanish 
Church at the Village of Camotan on the Road to Copan. ... . 23 
III. a, View of the Island Town of Flores in Lake Peten; b, The Sacred 
Cenote at Chichen Itza. 55. 0. sw) ws ae Shee 28 
IV. a, A Guatemalan huipili; b, Pouches of the Valiente Indians . ... 40 
V. a, Zapotecan Girl from the State of Oaxaca; 6, Lacandone Man from 
Southern Mexico ....°..0s 0s eis + uu pm ie en 42 
VI. a, Cuicuileco. A view showing cobblestone facing of mound and lava 
in contact with apron or causeway; b, Archaic Site under Lava Flow 
near Mexico City ~.25 0 6. 3-0 ee ct see ae . - 50 
VII. Large Archaic Figures found in Graves and offering Tiionke of 
Ancient Customs and Arts and also showing a Quality of Caricature 
or possibly Portraiture. .°. s- 25 sala bet eee 54 
VIII. Two Stages in the Stone Sculptures of Costa Rica. . ....... 60 
IX. a, Stone Sculptures of the Archaic Period; b, Typical Site of the 
Archaic Period 4 én, age ee ‘ 62 
X. Widely Distributed Pacints Wangs ere cerh a e 65 
Al. Distribution of the Archaic Culture . <5 = cee Oe eNO 
XII. Distribution of Agriculture in the New World. .........- 80 
XIII. A General View of the Ceremonial Center of Copan ........ 72 
XIV. a, View of the Plaza at Copan from the Northwestern Corner; b, View 
Across the Artificial Acropolis at Copan ......«.+-+:.e ee i 
XV. a, Model of the Temple of the Cross, Palenque, designed to show the 
Construction; b, Detail of Frieze on the Temple of the Cross . .. 76 
XVI. A Temple of Hochob showing Elaborate Facade Decorations in Stucco. 80 
XVII. A Sealed Portal Vault in the House of the Governor at Uxmal. . . . 82 
XVIII. a, Realistic Designs on Vases from Cham4, Guatemala; 6b, The Quetzal 
as represented on a Painted Cylindrical Vase from Copan. . ... 85 
XIX. Stela 13, Piedras Negras < . 4... 2 2). 7) eee 96 
XX. a, Top of Stela 1 at Yaxchilan; b, Analogous Detail of Stela 4, Yax- 
Chilan . 6 ee eee ee ee 102 
XXI. Development in Style of Carving at Copan. . .......+.-. 107 
XXII. Scheme of the Mayan Calendar as presented in the Codex Tro- 
Cortesianug. . 6 ecw ek cues une pe 116 
AXATIT. Typical Mayan Inseription . < .'. <<< «0 vos: eos 
XXIV. Page 24 Dresden Codex . 2 2s). 2°. « as) See ea LOO 
XXYV. a, Detail of the Dresden Codex showing Tzolkin used in Divination; 
b, Analysis of the above Tzolkin, according to Férstemann. . . . 134 
XXVI. General View of Monte Alban from the North. .......... 152 
XXVII. Detail of Monte Alban showing Wall Foundations and Small Cell-like 
Rooms.) 8.5; girs eeu eke cate ee eee io bene aaa = Sie eos 


MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 


2 


PAGE. 


XXVIII. Zapotecan Art: Incense Burners, Funerary Vases of Portrait Type, 


XXXTII. 


Cruciform Tomb with Geometric Decoration . 


XXIX. a, Sculpture of Stone of the Early Zapotecan Period; % jade Tablets 


pierced for Suspension . Sort euentae 
XXX. Laughing Head of the Totonacs . 


XXXI. a, An Elaborately Carved Stone Gollare b, A Palmate Stone from the 


State of Vera Cruz. 


XXXII. The Temple of Xochicalco netere. ee ak ‘ 
Two Views of the Principal Pyramid in the Citadel a Tacuikeeeen 3 


XXXIV. a, Partial View of the Great Pyramid at Cholula; 6, A View at La 


XXXVI. 


Quemada . 


XXXYV. Stone Slab from an atone Sepalchite in hie State ot Geninto ae Sage 
a, Finely Carved Ceremonial Slab found at Mercedes, Costa Rica; 6, 


Stone Figure from Costa Rica; c, Ceremonial Slab decorated with 


Monkeys, Mercedes, Costa Rica . 


XXXVII. a, The Gold Work of the Ancient Mexicana: b, Ornament of Gold 


from Costa Rica. 


XXXVIII. A Page from the Tribute Roll of ere Fie 
XXXIX. A Page from the Codex Telleriano Remensis 4 
XL. Serpent Head at Bottom of Balustrade, Great pena Wepre City. 206 


XLI. Sahagun’s Plan of the Tecpan in Mexico City. . ...... 
Whe ihe CalendariStone of the Aztecs - . . . 5. 3 - i ee 
Null eubeishield; stone at Cuernavaca... . .. 6 « . . 
XLIV. The Newly Discovered ‘“ National Stone”’ ae Mexico . 

XLY. Sculpture representing Coatlicue, the Serpent-Skirted Caddies! 
XLVI. Page from the Tonalamatl Section of the Codex Borbonicus . 


XLVII. a, Picture of Tlaloc, the God of Rain, and of Ehecatl, the Eee of 
Winds, in the Codex Magliabecchiano; 6, Mexican Genealogical 


PRA DlesoOMeAMabINPADOr Gicas ao site re, © ects le leo 8 eh ents 


TEXT FIGURES 


ere LOU 


1. The Great Snowstorm of 1447 shown in the Pictographic Record of the Aztecs. 13 
2AS Wexicansicturerot a VOleanic Hruption. . 9. 2. 6... 2 ss « 16 
3. Yucatan Deer caughtina Snare ..... 20 
4. The Moan Bird, or Yucatan Owl, Helsouiicds as a antec 20 
5. Spanish Ship in the Aubin Codex . 22 
6. Cortez arrives with Sword and Cross and Mieeicoene eae aap Gold 25 
(AR atecaneG anocemelienzo ce Tlaxcala jos S06 Yo... © 1s sae si weds 6s 6 26 
See Westenmomevrodennmecuichol Ribbon.) cc) fo. 2s He ee el So 3 te ee Sif 
Cm iovenrrouchottie Eurehol Indians %..) 2... « .. 2 20s <6 o's A Pao) DONE 
10. Atzeapotzalco Destroyed ..... Pon sen One ai tan LRA eS, ERY 47 
11. Diagram of Culture Strata at Keveaootinles SOS eo araire es re says oka - 48 
IDeeicocentisorviexean Modder Grass. 0. 2 6.6. 2s 6 ew os ee Se 51 
ieAnchaicehiemmmes trom ©entralWiexico . 5... . 20s ss «5 se ee vo 
14. Archaic Figurines—Zapotlan, Jalisco; Tampteo, Vee Cruz; and Cuesta 
islamcas palvadors 3... .-s a SPT ee Eh kh oom SAR oals Wie ue vk eS 55 
iE eAcchoicebieurinesrom salvador, £4 2. S so 20 sw 2 se 6 os 56 
eee eSLOLEviCeMOLPATGhiaiG Higurimes!.9. — = «i ss <6 sf 6 eel ec 57 
17. Textile Designs painted on Archaic Effigies é — 58 
18. Typical Tripod Vessels of the Archaic Period, from Mcneloe Rieaice C 59 


22. 


39. 


42. 


aooaaa»»aran»a»4gn 
OCODWODNAHA PWN KH CO 


aoa & 
On r 


. The Twenty Day Signs... . a. epee Sg Fee neem 
. The Nineteen Month Signs of the Macau Your: 


. Representations of the Moon. . . . » ca thar late er erate eee a 
. The Last Glyph of the Supplementary ‘easton PP Pe ne Se 
. Comparison of Mayan and Zapotecan Serpent Heads... .- 

. Bar and Dot Numerals combined with Hieroglyphs on Zapotecan Woekaten 
. Detail of Wall Construction at Mitla . . . . . - + + ++ 2 2 es © 2 
. Wall Paintings of Mitla . 

. The Eyes of Totonacan Figurines. Pere res 
. Jointed Doll of Clay from San Juan Teitaninee oa of) SES eee 
. Pottery Plates from Cholula with Decorations in Sapeshl. Caters 
_ Vessel with ‘‘Cloisonné’”’ Decoration in Heavy Pigments. 

. The Turtle Motive as developed in Negative Painting with Wax ae <obaine: 
. 185 
. 187 
. 190 


. Jaguar Head on Disk-Shaped ‘Sates Scivation : 
. Front View and Profile View Serpent Heads in Chorotegan ae 
. Jaguar Design associated with Figurines that still retain Archaic Ghar 


TEXT FIGURES 


_ Series showing the Modification of a Celt into a Stone Amulet . . = = = ane 
. Groundplans of Yaxchilan Temples. . . - +++ +++ 2 eee 8 2 * ie 
. Cross-section of Typical Mayan Temple in Nipeheis Vicente OP eas 


Mask Panel over Doorway at Xkichmook, Yucatan. . . . Se Sor 


. Design on Engraved Pot representing a Tiger seated in a Wreath of Water 


Lilies. Northern Yucatan. 


. Painted Design on Cylindrical Bowl eee Seat issuing Boned a 5 Shell. 


Salvadors sy lal cn owe. ete me Sree ena cee ae eeu re 5, Pa ye ant ee 


. Mayan Basket seeanes in ‘Gions Soulpeurs PEP erate ye hort vl) * an 
. Typical Elaborated Serpents of the Mayas. 2c. BO rer CACY, 
. Conventional Serpent of the Mayas used for Decérative ‘Pursceee Soames 
8. Upper Part of Serpent Head made into a Fret Ornament ..... =. «ss 
. Sculpture on Front of Lintel at Y axchilan-...2 7%. a nee Yaa ahO Ses ne 
. Types of Human Heads on the Lintels of Yaxchilan. 22s 2) smvsee=ene 
. Sculpture on Upper Part of Stela 11, Seibal: 2. 60a So. eee eee 
The Ceremonial Bar. i -le cee nde ines go er i ey eed ee 
. The Manikin Scepter . Par ar crn res rly tye cy Oe 
A The Two-Headed Dragon. 265 sc. ser eo oe om) el sa 
5. Gods in the Dresden Codex . : 

. The Front Head of the Two- Fiat deo’ on Stelae ne Piedras Mewene 


showing the Increase in Flamboyant Treatment: <% gs te, ate en 


. Grotesque Face on the Back of Stela B, Copan fs oa tes See Ro. A 
. Jaguar in Dresden Codex with a Water Lily attached to Forehead . ... - 


Late Sculpture from Chichen Itza. . . . - . s+ + += + + 5 2 # @ @ 


Bar and Dot Numerals of the Mayas . 


end Reptember 2 6 ee Deas 


a ne 


DAISCO. =. newts 2 Gl ae ie eee 


@ostasRicaal oy) cote ccs oe tobe pets tare 


a So eu oceew) ee. 


. 100 


5 LO 


105 
108 
108 


. 109 
nL? 
ee 
re: . 119 
_ Face Numerals found in Mayan Inscriptions. . . . - + + +++ ++ss-s . 
_ The Normal Forms of the Period Glyphs . . ..-+ ++ +++ +2 +s 
5. Face Forms of Period Glyphs : . 20. = = = si)eu nee 

. Hieroglyphs of the Four Directions. . . ogee ce iat ann 
. Hieroglyphs containing the Phonetic Hiemost Seine oval Pebe n oL na eee 
. Mayan Ceremony as represented in the Dresden Codex . . .. 

. Diagram of the Astronomical Base Line at Copan giving Hendbine Pe “Abril 9 
. 138 
. 142 


121 


+e 


121 


. LaF 
rye 
. 132 


142 
. 156 
157 
161 
163 
165 
178 
180 
184 


191 


64. 
65. 
66. 
67. 


68. 
69. 
70. 
71. 
72. 
73. 
74. 


75. 
76. 
77. 
78. 
79. 
80. 
81. 
82. 


83. 
84. 
85. 


86. 


TEXT FIGURES Vi) 


PaGE 
Pica teshrOmepalmmLCdeNicOVan VASES 27. « . . 6 ss s = os .s « » « » <« « 191 
Pighiva@onventionsiized Jaguar Motive. s ss... <« <0« «6 « « «ss 193 


Simple Crocodile Figures in Red Lines on Dishes from Mercedes, Costa Rica . 194 
Panels containing Crocodiles painted in White Lines on Large Tripod Bowls 
RUM Men CeMen yn COSbUDRICAI tes casts) 6 cl a so «cere er we Uo eh wl ee ente 194 


Simplified Crocodile Heads in the Yellow Line Ware of Mercedes, Costa Rica. 194 
Conventional Crocodiles from Costa Rica and Panama ......e... 197 
Pictographic Record of the Fighting near the Springs of Chapultepec . . . . 207 
Wetatspironsaine, sbOmerOl LiZOG. 5 <5 ss. je. so (eens el slo we St 219 
Detail showing the Construction of the Face of Coatlicue . ........ 223 
EMmecrorivmhs otabrecious Waterials “5 5.3 5 cs sus @ <<) es ee ee er ee 224 
Phonetic Elements derived from Pictures and used in Mexican Place Name 
ipo pis eee Sort sas conte cet ess eh Tenies en vevseie) eb Gots cette 224 
Lec aimblacem umes remmeers Talon tec s/c, cle SS iS eo Ses Sie ln ce es 225 
dA eae DIY TSAO) ey Gl ee See ae ea . 226 
WaniantenonmearOrenztecan Day SIGNS 2... . < .« <6 6c « ss 6 es 6 6 « 226 
Wrbecame Numbers and Objects of Commerce... . .«<« «+s 2 ss oe 227 
EMM CLaEGlmV Le ICM CCONGur, he 61s /6.3c.-6. 6. lene. She. wet sets, ss oe Ue 231 
Whalchurhthicues Aztecan Goddess of Water... « « « « « « « «6 + 6 « Zoe 
aX INI@sei@ziny QUACERAEEN, Soe: A eee oe Pc ee ee 241 
Mexican Blanket with the Design that represents interlacing Sand and Water 
CellC PCLT LCT Mme eto hea So ivetec cars, Son giv biome seo lo Seca Ssh 243 


ice veimovminloolonsourherm Wiexico, 2 6 so. 5. < 6 2 s+ 2 ee ew ws . 245 
Year Bearers in the Codex Porfirio Diaz ascribed to the Cuicatecan Tribe . . 246 
A Page from the Codex Nuttall, recording the Conquest of a Town situated 
Oumemelc eM CmC MONE OCA esas cite etl el Golel sy ew wm wt o Sek oe eens ca we oen 24d 
The God Macuilxochitl, Five Flower, as shown in a Mexican Codex and in 
Pottery trom Southern Mexico. . . ....... Si cians Pane oee si Toe cea 248 


INTRODUCTION 


Geography and Natural Environment. Unfortu- 
nately the terms ‘‘Mexico and Central America’”’ 
are not mutually exclusive. Central America is a 
natural division comprised between the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepee and the Isthmus of Panama. Mexico 
is a political division that 
includes several states in 
Central America, namely, 
Chiapas, Tabasco, Cam- 
peche, Yucatan, and the ter- 
ritory of Quintana Roo. 
The ancient high cultures 
of Mexico hardly extended 
as far north as the Tropic 
of Cancer and the region 
beyond this is of slight in- 3 
terest to us. Positions Fig. 1. The Great Snow- 
south of Mexico will often sete a pete ee an 
be referred to the SS Nae of eee Gates ani 
the modern political units ... Remensis. 
although these have no im- 
mediate relation to pre-Spanish conditions. These 
political units are: Guatemala, British Honduras, 
Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. 

Although lying within the tropics, the territory 
extending from the Isthmus of Panama to Central 
Mexico exhibits great extremes of climate and to- 
pography and hence of plant and animal life. The 
year is everywhere divided into a wet and a dry 
season but the relative duration of each depends 
upon land form and altitude. The coast of the 
Pacific is considerably drier than that of the At- 


13 


14 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


lantic. Three climatic zones are generally recog- 
nized, namely, the Tierra Caliente (Hot Land), 
Tierra Templada (Temperate Land), and Tverra 
Fria (Cold Land), and in some regions each of 
these has an arid and a humid strip. The change 
from luxuriant forests to open thorny deserts is 
often very sudden. On the high plateau or Tierra 
Fria the natural warmth of the latitude is largely 
overcome by the altitude. In the Valley of Mexico 
snow falls only at rare intervals, yet chilling winds 
are common in the winter. Much of the plateau 
from Mexico south into Guatemala is open farming 
land well suited to the raising of maize and wheat 
where water is sufficient. The shoulders of the 
mountains bear forests of pine and oak while the 
highest peaks are crowned with perpetual snow. 

A description of the mountains, rivers, and lakes 
will help towards an understanding of the problems 
that are before us. The broad plateau, crossed by 
irregular ranges of mountains, that occupies the 
states of New Mexico and Arizona continues far 
south into Mexico. On the western rim the Sierra 
Madre lifts a great pine-covered barrier, beyond 
which the land drops off quickly into the hot fringe 
of coastal plain bordering the Pacific Ocean and the 
Gulf of California. The highest mountains of the 
western Sierra Madre are Hl] Nevado and Colima, 
the first a snowy peak 14,370 feet high and the sec- 
ond an active voleano 12,278 feet high. On the east- 
ern rim of the central plateau the second Sierra 
Madre is less continuous but it culminates in the 
loftiest peak of all Mexico—the wonderful cone of 
Orizaba. This mountain rises from the tropical 
jungles well into the region of perpetual snow and 
attains an elevation of 18,314 feet above the sea. 


[>] 

Plate I. (a) Village Scene in Arid Mexico. Cactus and other 
thorny shrubs are ever present. The houses of the natives are of 
adobe with thatched roofs. (vb) In the Humid Lowlands. The 
view shows part of the plaza at Quirigua with one of the monu- 
ments almost concealed in vegetation of a few months’ growth. 


15 


16 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Its name in Aztecan is Citlaltepetl, which means 
Star Mountain. Two other famous peaks of Mex- 
ico are Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, both names 
being pure Aztecan. The first means Smoking 
Mountain and the second White Woman. These 
voleanic crests rise into the snowy zone from the 
table-land which is itself about 8,000 feet above the 
sea. 

In southern Mexico the plateau area enclosed be- 
tween the principal sierras narrows perceptibly, 
because the shore line of the 
Pacific and the mountain range 
that parallels it swing more 
and more towards the east. 
At the Isthmus of Tehuantepec 
a low valley separates the high- 
land area of Mexico from that 
of Central America. This sec- 
ond table-land is not so wide as 
the one we have just considered 
and is more deeply dissected by 
rivers. The mountains of Gua- 
temala rise to a considerable al- 

Fig. 2. The Smoxe  titude, the highest being Tacana 
reaches the Stars, 4 With 13.976 feet elevations sane 
Mexican Picture of a . 

Volcanic Eruption in tive Volcanoes are numerous 
the Codex ‘Telleriano and earthquakes frequent and 
Remensis. often disastrous. The Volean 

de Agua and the Volean de 
Fuego (Voleano of Water and Voleano of Fire) 
look down upon Ctuildad Vieja and Antigua Guate- 
mala, the old Spanish capitals which each in turn 
destroyed. The cordillera still presents its most 
abrupt front to the Pacific and on the eastern side, 
in Guatemala and Honduras, there are high forest- 


INTRODUCTION ike 


bearing ridges between the river systems. The 
Cockscomb Mountains in British Honduras are a 
low outlying group. In southern Nicaragua the 
main chain is broken by a low broad valley that 
extends from ocean to ocean. In Costa Rica and 
Panama a single range stretches midway along the 
narrow strip of land, with peaks that rise above 
11,000 feet. 

The lowland strip on the Pacific side of our area 
is a narrow fringe. Like the central plateau it is 
for the most part arid, but irrigation makes it pro- 
ductive. The lowlands of the Atlantic side are gen- 
erally wet and heavily forested. The greatest land 
mass of uniformly low elevation is the Peninsula of 
Yucatan. In eastern Honduras and Nicaragua 
there are extensive river valleys of low elevation. 

The river systems of Mexico and Central America 
flow into the two bounding oceans or into lakes 
which have no outlets. Several closed basins occur 
on the Mexican table-land. The Rio Nazas and the 
Rio Nieves flow into salt marshes in the northern 
state of Coahuila. But the most important interior 
basin is the Valley of Mexico. In this mountain 
enclosed valley, whose general level is 7,500 feet 
above the sea, there are five lakes which in order 
from north to south are named Tzompanco, Xalto- 
can, T’excoco, Xochimilco, and Chaleo. The last two 
contain fresh water, since they drain into Lake 
Texcoco, but the rest are more or less brackish. 
Lake Texcoco is by far the largest, although its area 
has been greatly reduced by natural and artificial 
causes since the coming of the Spaniards. 

The largest river of Mexico is the Rio Lerma 
which takes the name Rio de Santiago during its 
deep and tortuous passage from Lake Chapala to 


18 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


the Pacific. Farther to the south is the Rio de las 
Balsas which likewise flows into the western ocean. 
The name means ‘‘River of the Rafts’? and is given 
because of a peculiar floating apparatus made of 
gourds tied to a wooden framework that is used on 
this stream. Flowing into the Gulf of Mexico are 
several large streams, among which may be men- 
tioned the Panuco, Papaloapan, Grijalva, and Usu- 
macinta. The last is by far the greatest in volume 
of water, and with its maze of tributaries drains a 
large area of swamp and jungle in which are buried 
some of the most wonderful ruined cities of the New 
World. 

In the northern part of Yucatan there are no riv- 
ers on the surface on account of the porous lime- 
stone. Instead there are great natural wells called 
cenotes where the roofs of subterranean rivers have 
fallenin. Many of the ancient cities were built near 
such natural wells. 

Passing to the south the most important river of 
Guatemala is the Motagua, which has cut a fine val- 
ley through a region of lofty mountains. In Hon- 
duras there are several large rivers, including the 
Uloa, Patuca, and Segovia. The lake region of 
Nicaragua is drained by the San Juan River that 
flows into the Caribbean Sea. Nearly all the 
streams of Central America that flow into the Pa- 
cific are short and steep torrents. An important 
exception is the Lempa River that forms part of 
the interior boundary of Salvador. 

Concerning lakes, mention has already been made 
of Chapala and Texcoco, the most important in 
Mexico. The former is about fifty miles in length. 
In the state-of Michoacan there are a number of 
beautiful lakes intimately connected with the history 


INTRODUCTION 19 


and mythology of the Tarascan Indians. The most 
famous is called Patzecuaro. In southern Yucatan 
the shallow body of water known as Lake Peten 
also has a distinct historical interest. Several lakes 
in Guatemala are well known on account of the rare 
beauty of their situation. Lake Atitlan is sur- 
rounded by lofty mountains, and Lake Izabal, or 
Golfo Dulce, is famous for the luxuriance of the 
vegetation that screens its banks. Lakes Nicaragua 
and Managua are well known on account of their 
connection with the much-discussed canal projects. 
The Island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua bears an 
active voleano. 

In regard to the geology it is only necessary to 
point out a few of the more important characters. 
The highlands which bear so many active and qui- 
escent voleanoes naturally show great masses of 
eruptive rocks, some due to recent action and others 
much more ancient. Porous tufa is a common ma- 
terial for sculptures in many parts of Mexico and 
Central America. In other places there are great 
beds of softer and finer grained material also of 
voleanic origin. In these places, such as Copan in 
western Honduras and Mitla in southern Mexico, 
building in stone received its greatest development. 
The soft greenish stone of Copan seems to be a 
solidified mud flow permeated with volcanic ash 
rather than a true lava flow of melted rock. Lime- 
stones are also common and important in the eco- 
nomic development. In some regions there are beds 
of a hard, blue limestone going back to the Carbon- 
iferous epoch. This stone makes an excellent ce- 
ment after burning. The Peninsula of Yucatan is 
a great plain of limestone of much more recent 
formation. Like our own Florida it was once a 


20 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


coral reef which was lifted above the sea by some 
natural agency. This limestone gets older and 
more solid as we approach the base of the peninsula 
but at best is rather porous and coarse-grained. 

The fauna and flora present great variation. In 
the moist lowlands the monkeys play in the tree tops 
and the jaguar lies in wait for 
its prey. Alligators and croco- 
diles infest the rivers and 
swamps. Two small species 
of deer and the ocellated turkey 
e are important items in the 
Fig.3. Yucatan Deer meat supply of Yucatan, that 
caughtinaSnare. From includes also the 1suanaetne 
the Mayan Codex, Tro- ae 
Aiuiaae aes peceary, and various large ro- 

dents. The tapir and mana- 
tee are the largest animals of the lowlands but 
neither seems to have been of great significance to 
the natives. Bats are frequently | 
represented in the ancient art 
and a bat demon appears in sev- 
eral myths. 

Upon the highlands of Mexico 
the Toltecan deer is still hunted, 
together with the wild turkey 
that is the parent of our domestic 
birds. The turkey was, in fact, 
domesticated by the Mexican 
tribes. It probably occurred 
southward over the Guatemalan Fig. 4. The Moan 
highlands, but is now extinct in Bit or Yucatan Owl, 

. : personified as a Demi- 
this latter region. In the-south- 604 Dresden Godex. 
ern part of Central America the 
place of the turkey as an item of diet is taken by 
the curassow, a yellow-crested bird with black plum- 


INTRODUCTION at 


age. The coppery-tailed trogon, the famous quet- 
zal, was sacred in ancient times and is now the 
emblem of Guatemala. This beautiful bird occurs 
only in the cloud cap forest zone on the high moun- 
tains of southern Mexico and Guatemala. Blue 
macaws, parrots, paroquets, and humming birds 
contributed their gay plumage to adorn headdresses 
and feather-covered cloaks. These and many other 
birds doubtless flitted about in the aviary of Mocte- 
zuma. The black vulture, the king vulture, and the 
harpy eagle are other conspicuous birds often fig- 
ured in the ancient art. The coyote, ocelot, and 
puma are the principal beasts of prey on the 
highlands. 

Among the characteristic trees of the lowlands 
may be mentioned the palm, which occurs in great 
variety, the amate and ceiba, both of which attain to 
large size, as well as mahogany, Spanish cedar 
(which is not a cedar at all but a close relative of 
the mahogany), campeche, or logwood, rosewood, 
sapodilla, and other trees of commerce. Upon the 
higher meuntain slopes are forests of long-leaf pine 
and of oak. In the desert stretches the cactus is 
often tree-like and there are many shrubs that in 
the brief spring become masses of highly-colored 
blossoms. 

Some of the principal crops of Mexico and Central 
America have been introduced from the Old World, 
including coffee, sugar cane, and bananas. Other 
crops such as maize, beans, chili peppers, cocoa, etc., 
are indigenous. Among the native fruits may be 
mentioned the aguacate, or alligator pear, the ma- 
mey, the anona, or custard apple, the guanabina, 
jocote, and nance. 


22 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


History of European Contact. The great area 
with which we are concerned has been in touch with 
Kurope since the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
Columbus, on his last voyage in 1502, landed on the 
northern coast of Honduras and rounded the stormy 
cape called Gracias a Dios. Later he skirted the 
shore of Costa Rica and Panama and entered the 
body of water which was named in his honor Bahia 
del Almirante—Bay of the Admiral. He brought 
back sensational news of the gold in possession of 
the natives, which they had told him came from a 
district called Veragua. After a few years of 
stormy warfare the Spaniards established them- 
selves firmly in this golden land. Vasco Nunez de 
Balboa, who emerged from the bickering mob as 
the strongest leader, was the first white man to 
cross the Isthmus. This he did in 1513, grandilo- 

quently laving claim to the Pacific 

Ocean and all the shores that it 

O touched in the name of Spain. 
ofe The crown appointed the greedy 
and black-hearted Pedrarias Da- 

vila governor of Darien and in 

1517 he succeeded in having Bal- 

Fig. 5. Spanish boa beheaded on a flimsy charge. 
Ship in the Aubin Colonization and exploration went 
Codex. forward rapidly. In 1519 the old 

city of Panama, now in ruins, was 
founded. The rich region around the Nicaraguan 
lakes was discovered by Gil Gonzalez Davila and 
the city of Granada was founded in 1524. The ex- 
ploration from the southern base came in contact 
with that from the north in Salvador shortly after 
this event. 

Let us now direct our attention to the conquest of 


[o] 
Plate II. (a) Site of Pueblo Viejo, the First Capital of 
Guatemala; (b) A Spanish Church at the Village of Camotan 


on the Road to Copan. 


23 


74. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Mexico. Perhaps the Portuguese were the first to 
sight the mainland of Yucatan in 1493. There is 
little to prove this except one or two charts or maps 
made in the first decade of the sixteenth century 
that show the peninsula in its proper location. In 
1511 or 1512 a ship from Darien was wrecked and 
some of the sailors were cast upon the coast of 
Yucatan. Most of them were killed and sacrificed, 
but two survived. One of these survivors was 
Geronimo de Aguilar, who later was rescued by 
Cortez and became his guide and interpreter. 

The first accredited voyage of discovery to Mex- 
ico was one under the command of Francisco Her- 
nandez de Cordoba, which sailed from Cuba in 
February, 1517. Ue coasted the northern and east- 
ern shores of Yucatan. When he attempted to ob- 
tain water he was worsted in a serious battle with 
the Maya Indians. His expedition finally returned 
to Cuba in a sad plight. The next year Juan de 
Grijalva set out to continue the exploration of the 
new land with the stone-built cities. He landed at 
Cozumel Island and took possession. He explored 
the eastern coast of Yucatan as well as the northern 
and western ones, discovered the mouth of the large 
river that bears his name, and proceeded as far as 
the Island of Sacrifices in the harbor of Vera Cruz. 

The next year Hernando Cortez was sent out by 
Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, to conquer the new 
land. He landed at Cozumel Island and rescued 
Geronimo de Aguilar. Then he followed the coast 
to the mouth of the Grijalva River where he dis- 
embarked and fought the important battle of Cintla, 
the first engagement in the New World in which 
cavalry was used. After a signal victory Cortez 
continued his way to Vera Cruz. Here delay and 


INTRODUCTION 25 


dissension seemed about to break the luck of the 
invaders. 

Although the Mexicans were somewhat inclined 
to regard the Spaniards as supernatural visitants 
and to associate their coming with the fabled return 
of Quetzaleoatl, the Plumed Serpent, still Mocte- 
zuma refused to grant 
an interview to Cortez. 
The Totonacan city of 
Cempoalan opened its 
gates and became allies 
of the invaders. Final- 
ly, at the instigation of 
their stout-hearted ecap- 
tain, the Spaniards de- 
stroyed their ships on Fig. 6. Cortez arrives with 
the shore in order to Sword and Cross and Mocte- 
steel their resolution ee Spetleee Gold. Codex 
through the impossibil. “"""" Bs 
ity of retreat. Then the little band of 450 white 
men with their retinue of natives marched towards 
the highlands. The route led past Jalapa and over 
the mountains to the fortified city of Tlaxcala. This 
city, after a skirmish, likewise enlisted in the Span- 
ish cause, a course that came easy because Tlaxcala 
was a traditional enemy of Tenochtitlan, the ancient 
Mexico City, and had withstood the attacks of the 
Aztecs for many years. From here Cortez passed 
to the sacred city of Cholula where, suspecting 
treachery, he caused many of the inhabitants to be 
massacred. 

In the Spanish histories one hears much con- 
cerning the omens, the prophecies, and the vain 
appeals to the gods that became more and more 
frequent and frantic as the invaders approached 


26 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


the capital. Arriving at Ixtapalapan they entered 
upon the great causeway leading out to the Venice- 
like city in the lake. Accepting the inevitable, 
Moctezuma and his nobles met the Spaniards and 
conducted them to the Palace of Axayacatl, which 
was prepared for their habitation. This took place 
in November, 1519. The fears of Moctezuma were 
soon fulfilled, for he was taken prisoner and held as 
a hostage of safety in his own capital. 


Fig. 7. Aztecan Canoe. Lienzo de Tlaxcala. 


Meanwhile Velasquez, convinced of the unfaith- 
fulness of Cortez, dispatched Narvaez to capture the 
rebellious agent. But Narvaez was himself cap- 
tured and his soldiers went to augment the army 
of the victor. 

Alvarado had been left in command of the gar- 
rison at Tenochtitlan during the absence of Cortez. 
The time approached for the great feast of Tez- 
eatlipoea and the Spaniards, fearing the results of 
this appeal to the principal Aztecan god, resolved 
to be the first to strike. The multitude assembled 


INTRODUCTION 27 


in the temple enclosure was massacred and after 
this deed the soldiers fought their way back to the 
stronghold in which they were quartered. ‘The 
Aztees were thoroughly aroused by this unwar- 
ranted cruelty as well as by the cupidity of the 
Spaniards. Cortez hastened back to take personal 
charge; but in spite of victories in the storming of 
the pyramids and in other hand-to-hand contests, 
the invaders were so weakened that their condition 
was truly alarming. Moctezuma died in captivity 
and the last restraint of the natives was removed. 

The night of June 30, 1520, is famous as La Noche 
Triste—The Sad Night—for on this night the Span- 
iards attempted to steal out of the city that had 
become untenable. The natives were warned by a 
woman’s shriek and a desperate encounter took 
place on the narrow causeway leading to Tlacopan. 
The bridges were torn down and the Spanish sol- 
diers in armor were hemmed in between the deep 
eanals. At last, however, the firm land was reached. 
Here, instead of following up the victory, the natives 
permitted the Spaniards to re-form their ranks. A 
few days later Cortez was able to restore something 
of his lost prestige by the decisive victory at 
Otumba, after which he continued his retreat to 
the friendly Tlaxcala. 

A year was spent in recuperation, in building 
boats for an attack from the lake, and in putting 
down the Aztecan outposts. In the meantime the 
natives were suffering from a dreadful visitation of 
smallpox, introduced by the Spaniards, and Cuit- 
lahuac, the successor of Moctezuma, had died of this 
disease after a rule of eighty days. Finally Te- 
nochtitlan was besieged again. The buildings were 
leveled to the ground as the Spaniards advanced. 


se 


a 


[db] 

Plate III. (a) View of the Island Town of Flores in Lake 
Peten where the Last Capital of the Itzas was located; (b) The 
Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza into which Human Beings were 
thrown as Sacrifices, along with Objects of Jade and Gold. 


28 


INTRODUCTION 29 


The brave defense of Cuauhtemoc availed for 
naught against cannon and steel armor. On the 
13th of August, 1521, the conquest of Tenochtitlan 
was achieved and the spirit of a warlike people for- 
ever broken. 

The Valley of Mexico having been taken, numer- 
ous expeditions were sent out to subdue the more 
distant provinces and to establish colonies. Alva- 
rado invaded the south and by 1524 he had captured 
Utatlan and other native strongholds on the high- 
lands of Guatemala and had invaded Salvador. 
Cortez himself undertook a wonderful march from 
Vera Cruz to the Gulf of Honduras to punish an 
unruly subordinate. His course lay through the 
swamps and jungles of the Usumacinta Basin, 
thence across the savannahs of southern Yucatan 
to Lake Peten, and, finally, over the mountains to 
Lake Izabal and the Motagua River. Even today 
much of his route would be called impassable for 
an army. Puerto Cortez, on the northern coast of 
Honduras, was founded at the conclusion of this 
expedition. The exploitation of Yucatan and Ta- 
basco was granted to Francisco Montejo, who began 
the conquest of this low-lying territory in 1527. 
The first campaigns were disastrous and _ heart- 
breaking. Several short-lived Salamancas were 
founded, one of them at Chichen Itza. But the odds 
were too great and by 1535 all the Spaniards had 
been killed or expelled. The son of Montejo re- 
newed the struggle. In 1540 Campeche was founded 
and early in 1542 the city of Mérida was established 
upon the site of an earlier Mayan town. 

Progress was also rapid in the north. Nuno de 
Guzman departed in 1529 on a mission to conquer 
Michoacan and the great northern province known 


30 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


as New Galicia. His rule was marred by many acts 
of cruelty. In 1538 Coronado, the successor of 
Guzman, led his army northward to the land of the 
Pueblo Indians and then out into the Great Plains. 
Before the first English settlement was made in 
North America the power of Spain was firmly estab- 
lished, not only throughout Central America and 
Mecca: but also in the southwestern part of the 
United States. 

The spiritual conquest was no less remarkable 
than the territorial. The priests accompanied and 
even preceded the armies with the doctrine of the 
cross. The rough and ready characters that en- 
liven the heat all drama of this period had the 
vices of greed and cruelty, but nearly all were 
imbued with a pride of religion, if not with the true 
flame. The firmness and bigotry on the one hand 
and the open sympathy on the other with which the 
Catholic fathers met the practical problems before 
them resulted in vast achievements. Hither by acci- 
dent or design certain patron saints and efficacious 
shrines of special interest to the natives were not 
long in becoming known. The Virgin of Guadeloupe 
and the Black Christ of Esquipulas brought many 
converts to the foreign faith. Church building was 
carried on apace. The various religious orders be- 
came rich and powerful and exerted a strong influ- 
ence upon civil administration. 

The later history of this great region can be 
passed over briefly. Cortez was the first governor 
general of Mexico but he was soon shorn of his 
power as dictator at large. The First Audiencia 
was appointed in 1528 and is noteworthy simply by 
reason of its misrule. The Second Audiencia, be- 
ginning two years later, put through some excellent 


INTRODUCTION al 


reform laws. The first Viceroy, the great and good 
Mendoza, arrived in 1535 and for fifteen years the 
land prospered under his rule, which was benign 
without being weak. He was succeeded by Luis de 
Velasco, who emancipated many of the enslaved 
Indians. The long line of viceroys continued until 
1821, when Spain was forced to relinquish her 
provinces in America. Among the greatest of the 
viceroys was Bucareli, the forty-sixth in line, who 
ruled Mexico from 1771-1779 while the United 
States of America were just beginning to feel the 
pulse of life. 

During the viceregal period in Mexico the region 
to the south was ruled by the captain general of 
Guatemala. The dominion was subdivided into five 
departments corresponding to the modern republics 
of Guatemala (which then included the Mexican 
state of Chiapas), Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, 
and Costa Rica. Panama was ruled from the South 
American province of New Granada. 

Weakened by Napoleonic wars and rent by in- 
ternal dissensions, Spain found herself in the first 
two decades of the nineteenth century unable to 
maintain her waning power in America. Bolivar 
and his brother patriots raised the standard of re- 
volt in South America in 1810 and in the same year 
war for independence broke out in the north. Hi- 
dalgo, the parish priest of Dolores, rang the liberty 
bell of Mexican freedom on the 16th of September, 
1810. This beloved patriot was captured the year 
following, and shot, but the revolution, once begun, 
was continued under Morelos and other leaders. 
After 1815 the cause seemed hopeless, but in 1820 
there was a new uprising and General Iturbide, who 
was sent to put it down, turned his army against the 


32 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


government and established himself as emperor. 
Central America was also included in this Mexican 
empire. The rule of Iturbide soon became unpopu- 
lar and in 1823 he abdicated his throne. The Mexi- 
can republic that was then instituted continued until 
the French intervention in 1861. During this time 
the most noteworthy events were the war with the 
United States in 1846-47 and the passing of the 
reform laws under Benito Juarez that freed Mexico 
from the oppressions of the church. 

Asa result of the French intervention Maximilian 
of Austria was made emperor. This unfortunate 
ruler, who did much to beautify Mexico City, was 
dethroned and shot in 1867. The republic was then 
re-established. 

The other republics of Central America formed a 
federal union at the time the first Mexican empire 
came to an end in 1823. This union was preserved 
till 1839 and several later attempts were made to 
restore it. The five republics have had such tem- 
pestuous careers as a result of warfare, usurpation, 
and political brigandage that their material and so- 
cial development has been stunted. Several are 
now, however, on the high road to stability. 

Panama was until 1903 a part of Colombia. Brit- 
ish Honduras had its origin in the concessions given 
to English logwood gatherers and to the fact that 
pirates found refuge behind the coral reefs that line 
the shores. The English claim to the Mosquito 
Coast rested upon a similar flimsy basis, and was 
finally abandoned. 


Languages. The twenty distinct stocks of related 
languages formerly recognized in Mexico and Cen- 
tral America have now been greatly reduced. Of 


INTRODUCTION 35 


those that remain, some occupied small areas and 
had little in the way of dialectic variation, while 
others stretched over wide territories and were di- 
vided into many mutually unintelligible tongues, 
which, in turn, were subdivided into well-defined 
dialects. Several stocks are now approaching ex- 
tinction through the substitution of Spanish. A 
number of languages, however, are still spoken by 
hundreds of thousands of natives. 

The language having the greatest geographical 
extension within the area under consideration is the 
Mexican, or Nahuan, now consolidated with the 
Piman, Shoshonean, etc., in a great stock called the 
Uto-Aztecan. In its extent this stock may be com- 
pared to the Indo-Iranian of the Old World which 
comprises most of the modern and ancient languages 
of Kurope as well as those of a large part of Asia. 
Within the United States are the numerous Sho- 
shonean tribes found as far north as Idaho, reaching 
into California on the one hand and into Texas on 
the other. In southern Arizona and northwestern 
Mexico come the Piman group. East of the Sierra 
Madre are the Tarahumare and the Tepehuane. 
These languages are mutually unintelligible, al- 
though morphologically related, and all are sub- 
divided into dialects. The relationship is proved 
through laborious comparison and analysis of the 
words and grammar, in the same way as the philolo- 
geist proves that Persian, Greek, Russian, English 
and Welsh are all cognate tongues. Farther to the 
south are still other divisions of the stock; including 
the Huichol and Cora of the mountainous region 
north of Guadalajara and the Mexican or Aztecan 
of the Valley of Mexico and adjacent country. The 
Mexican language is still spoken by a million or 


34 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


more natives and is divided into a number of dia- 
lects. Properly the Aztecs are a single tribe whose 
chief city was Tenochtitlan, the ancient Mexican 
City. They first appear on the page of history as 
the Mexitin, along with the closely related Chalea, 
Xochimilea, ete. The people of Central Mexico 
ealled their language Nahuatl, meaning ‘‘clear 
speech’’ and nicknamed their relatives to the south, 
Pipil, or ‘‘boys’’ because they spoke awkwardly. 
Mexican colonies were widespread before the com- 
ing of the Spaniards and during the Conquest the 
distribution of this nation was made still greater. 
The Mexicans, and especially the natives of Tlax- 
eala, accompanied the Spaniards on military expedi- 
tions against other tribes and as a consequence 
many place names in southern Mexico and Guate- 
mala were translated into their language. There 
were, however, large groups of Indians of Mexican 
stock already located in southern Guatemala and 
in Salvador. Still farther south were the Niquirao 
of Nicaragua and a little-known group called the 
Sigua in Costa Rica. 

The wide geographical distribution of Uto- 
Aztecan languages has an undeniable historical 
significance. The numerous tribes represent a 
very wide range in culture albeit nearly all are 
dwellers of arid or semi-arid regions. Some like 
the Paiute, are miserable ‘‘diggers’’ willing to eat 
anything that will support life; others like the 
Comanche are warlike raiders; more progressive 
tribes like the Hopi have adopted agriculture and 
developed interesting arts and customs; while the 
highest members of the group are among the most 
civilized nations of the New World. It seems clear 
that language can be used as a basis of classification 


INTRODUCTION oO 


over a much greater stretch of time than can other 
social habits summed up as ‘‘culture.’’ Particular 
phases of art, religion, and government develop and 
disappear, but the grouping of sounds used to ex- 
press ideas remains as proof that peoples now far 
apart geographically, as well as in their habits and 
achievements, were once close together. The pe- 
culiar distribution of the Uto-Aztecan languages 
may indicate a general southward movement of the 
stock. 

_ The second most important linguistic stock is the 
Mayan, now spoken by over half a million people. 
This stock has only one outlying member, namely, 
the Huasteca of northern Vera Cruz. The other 
twenty-one languages cover a continuous area in the 
Mexican states of Yucatan, Tabasco, and Chiapas, 
and in the republic of Guatemala. The most impor- 
tant language of the group is the Maya proper, 
which is spoken by the natives of Yucatan and by 
the Lacandone Indians of the Usumacinta Valley. 
The Tzental, Quiché, Cakchiquel, Chol, and Chorti 
are other prominent languages. 

In the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec are 
the Zapotecan and Mixtecan stocks, which differ 
widely in sound and structure from the Mayan and 
Nahuan tongues that hem them in. West and east 
of the Valley of Mexico are, respectively, the Taras- 
ean and Totonacan stocks, which show no great 
amount of subdivision. In Honduras, Nicaragua, 
and Costa Rica are several language groups that 
have never been carefully studied. It seems likely 
that some of these will be consolidated when words 
and grammatical structures are better known. The 
Chiapanecan languages were spoken in three locali- 
ties on the Pacific side of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, 


36 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


while a fourth division occupied a small area far to 
the northwest on the banks of the Chiapas River. 
It is now believed that the Otomi group, as well as 
a number of minor languages, including the Mazate- 
ean, belong in a single stock with the Chiapanecan. 
If this supposed connection should prove true a 
northern movement of the stock would be pretty 
surely indicated. Several members of the Subti- 
aban stock show the same south to north movement 
and here there is evidence that the migration took 
place some three centuries before the coming of 
the Spaniards. Parts of the Isthmian region were 
held by tribes having linguistic affiliation with South 
America and it is not unlikely that a considerable 
back flow from South America made itself felt along 
the Atlantic coast of Central America, if we may 
judge by ethnological features and by suggested 
linguistic connections. 

The great Hokan stock has now been extended 
from California across northern Mexico to Texas, 
taking in the Seri and numerous other tribes of low 
culture. For the most part these tribes are extinct 
or at least have lost the ancient speech. 


Ethnology. To a less extent than the native lan- 
guages the old-time customs still hold out against 
the tide of European influence. In regions not 
easily accessible on account of deserts, mountains, 
or tropical jungles, there are a number of Indian 
tribes that preserve in a large measure their ancient 
arts and ideas. But the study of these remnant 
peoples has not been very thorough. 

The Pima, Seri, Tarahumare, Tepehuane, and 
other tribes of the extreme north and northwest of 
Mexico have until recent times been comparatively 


INTRODUCTION OL 


unmodified by Spanish influences. Basketry, tex- 
tiles, and pottery have been maintained by them as 
well as many religious ceremonies. Farther south 
among the Cora and Huichol there also are surviv- 
ing arts. The woven fabrics of these Indians are 


Ser NSVESAASY ESPONIVSLAOS 


Ce BR ge Cs OF 
oh, A) oo af ‘ 


<> 
ne a ‘ 
o > x "9 F.5 2 a o> x ' x >a a x * b 4 


STEREOS 


Fig. 8. Design on Modern Huichol Ribbon. 


Fig. 9. Woven Pouch of the Huichol Indians showing 
Two-Headed Austrian Eagle. 


very beautiful but introduced ideas are frequently 
seen. Tor instance, a very common motive in Hui- 
chol textile art is the two-headed Austrian eagle 
evidently taken from the coins of Charles V. 
Crowns similar to those worn by the two-headed 


38 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


eagle are often shown on the heads of rampant 
animals. But most of the motives are doubtless of 
native origin. 

Among the Huichol and Tarahumare the curious 
peyote, or hikule worship may be studied. A small 
variety of cactus is eaten, which induces ecstasy or 
stupor accompanied by color visions and peculiar 
dreams. Elaborate ceremonies are associated with 
the eating and gathering of this plant. The reli- 
gious cult of the peyote has swept over a large por- 
tion of the Great Plains Area of the United States 
and is known even to Indians in the neighborhood 
of the Great Lakes. There can be no doubt that 
the narcotic action of the peyote was known to the 
Aztecs, who made a ceremonial use of it under the 
name teonanacatl. An intoxicating drink called 
teswin is commonly made in northern Mexico from 
the heart of the mesceal plant. It takes the place 
of the famous pulque, the ancient beverage of the 
Mexican highlands. Hunting dances in which are 
employed regalia and ceremonial objects of great 
interest occur among the Huichol and neighboring 
tribes. The so-called ‘‘god’s eyes’? made of yarn 
strung spider-web fashion over crossed sticks are 
practically identical with the ‘‘squash blossoms’? of 
the Pueblo Indians. There are also real temple 
structures, or ‘‘god houses,’’ which are very signifi- 
cant when we consider the former importance of the 
temple among the more highly civilized peoples to 
the south. In these and other respects the Huichol 
culture is about midway between the culture of the 
Southwestern Pueblo tribes and that which formerly 
existed in central Mexico. 

Elsewhere in northern and central Mexico it is 
possible to find many suggestions of ancient Indian 
ways of living. In nearly all the outlying villages 


INTRODUCTION 39 


the old-time thatched huts are still used, while 
baskets, gourd vessels, wooden bowls, earthen pots, 
and other household objects hark back to native ori- 
gins, although often modified by European contact. 
For instance, glazing is commonly seen on the mod- 
ern pottery. Many travelers in Mexico bring away 
as souvenirs pieces of pottery from Guadalajara 
and Cuernavaca. These wares are made by In- 
dians, but in decoration they have only slight traces 
of the ancient art of the Mexicans. 

In dress there are noteworthy survivals. The 
serape made either on the narrow hand loom or on 
a crude form of the Spanish tread loom is a pic- 
turesque element in the national dress that is 
rapidly disappearing from view. Time was when 
the rich plantation owner wore a gayly colored 
blanket on fiesta days. The most famous centers 
for the manufacture and sale of blankets were the 
cities of Saltillo and San Miguel. The Saltillo pat- 
tern shows a medallion consisting of concentric dia- 
monds in various colors upon an all-over design in 
stripes. The motives are minute geometric figures 
skilfully interlocked. The colors are rich and per- 
manent and are combined in a very pleasing manner. 
Saltillo blankets must be classed among the finest 
textile products of the world. The best period was 
before 1880. San Miguel blankets show character- 
istically a rosette instead of a diamond in the center. 
Many beautiful blankets come from other localities 
in Mexico. The Chimayo blankets have the same 
part Indian, part Spanish origin and are made by 
the Spanish-speaking natives in the mountain val- 
leys of New Mexico. 

In southern Mexico there are many towns of 
Indians where the women still wear the finely em- 
broidered huipili. This old-time garment varies 


[Db] 
Plate IV. (a) A Guatemalan huipili decorated with Highly 
Conventionalized Animals in Embroidery; (b) Pouches of the 
Valiente Indians of the Chiriqui Lagoon, Panama. 


40 


INTRODUCTION 41 


considerably in different towns but as a rule it is 
a simple sack-like gown cut square at the neck and 
with short sleeves. Sometimes it is shortened to a 
blouse, and is worn with a skirt; at other times a 
short huipili is worn over a longer one. An easily 
visited town where the natives still wear the old- 
time dress is Amatlan, within an hour’s walk of 
Cordova. The women of the Isthmus of Tehuante- 
pec have a gorgeous costume of which the most 
remarkable feature is a wide ruff worn around the 
neck or on the back of the head. The Mayan women 
of Yucatan wear white huipili with needlework in 
eolor around the bottom. On the highlands of 
Guatemala the huipili is usually a blouse. The 
skirt sometimes consists of a strip of cloth wrapped 
several times around the body. 

An interesting ceremony which survives in some 
parts of Mexico and Guatemala has as its principal 
feature a lofty pole with a swivel arrangement at 
the top to which long ropes are attached. These 
ropes are wound round the swivel and performers, 
who may be dressed like birds, attach themselves 
to the rope ends. During the process of unwinding 
the performers whirl dizzily around the pole de- 
scending lower and lower and swing in a wider and 
wider circle till they reach the ground. 

The Lacandone Indians live in the marshy jungles 
that border the winding Usumacinta. They speak 
the same tongue as the Maya Indians of Yucatan but 
in the matter of culture they have acquired little 
from the Spaniards. They still weave simple gar- 
ments and make pottery vessels. In hunting they 
use the bow and arrow, the latter usually tipped 
with a point of stone. In their religious practices 
they use incense burners which are comparable to 
those of the sixteenth century. 


GV 


‘OQII} UBABI SITY} JO SLoqurour 
MOT OY} SUOUIE Woes soWIT}OWOS ST IVY AAVA\ “OOTXOPY UsoyJNog Wo Uv ouopuBdeTT (q) fuIBA FO 
QpeUl SsolppReT] PYVT-ueqiny, &@ Survam ‘vaexeQ JO o4VIG oy} WOIT [AIH Uvoojodez (vy) ‘A ORIG 


INTRODUCTION 43 


The Caribs occupy the greater part of the north 
coast of Guatemala and Honduras, running east 
from the port of Livingston on the Gulf of Amatique. 
These people, originally of South America and later 
of the West Indies as well, were deported by the 
English from the Island of St. Vincent in 1796. 
They have now established themselves in the new 
land where they raise the manioc or cassava root 
and press out the poisonous juice in a basketry tube 
as do their kindred in the Orinoco Valley. Long 
before the forcible immigration it is likely that the 
Caribs, who were cannibalistic in habit, had raided 
the shores of Central America in their seagoing 
canoes. A significant passage in the chronicles of 
the Mayas states that naked man-eating savages 
visited Yucatan long before the coming of the 
Spaniards. 

The Mosquito Indians of the east coast of Nica- 
ragua and Honduras have a very considerable negro 
admixture. They are fishermen of low culture. 
Farther inland are found the Sumo who flatten the 
heads of their children and who hold strange feasts 
in honor of the dead in which the dancers are 
masked so that none may be recognized. A string 
is stretched over the tree tops from the grave to the 
feasting place and over this string the ghost of the 
dead person is supposed to walk. When everyone 
has fallen in a drunken stupor from mishla the ghost 
of the dead man departs for the land of the dead. 
These Sumo Indians build large houses with open 
sides and are very skilful at fishing with bow and 
arrow and steering their canoes through white rap- 
ids. They practise polygamous marriages, weave 
cotton, and make interesting beadwork ornaments. 

In the narrow Isthmian region there are tribes of 


44 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Indians that resist manfully the inroads of civiliza- 
tion. Perhaps the best known of these are the San 
Blas Indians who inhabit the mountain fastnesses 
east of the Canal Zone. In northern Costa Rica the 
Guatuso and Talamanca tribes still maintain to a 
considerable degree their old native character. 

Physical Types. Minor physical differences in 
stature, head form, and facial expression mark off 
pretty clearly the tribes of this area from each other. 
The stature is lowest among the Mayas and Maza- 
tees, the average being about 5 feet 1 inch, while 
among the Tarascans, Tlaxcalas, and Zapotecs, it 
averages about 5 feet 3 inches. The other tribes of 
Central America and of central Mexico fall between 
these extremes. In northern Mexieo the stature 
increases considerably, average measurements for 
the Yaqui being in excess of 5 feet 6 inches. To 
make up for their lack of height the southern In- 
dians are sturdy and heavy muscled, with deep 
chests. Their hair is usually black and straight, 
but occasionally wavy. Light beards and mustaches 
are sometimes worn, especially by the Mayas. The 
eyes are so dark brown as to appear black to the 
casual observer. They are set rather wide apart 
and while usually horizontal they seem, in some in- 
stances, to have a slight Mongoloid tilt. Noses vary 
ereatly but are often finely aquiline. The cephalic 
index (obtained by dividing the breadth of the head 
by its length and multiplying the result by 100) is 
rather high. The Mayas are strongly round-headed 
with an index of 85.0 while their linguistic relatives, 
the Tzendals, have a medium index of 76.8. The 
other tribes of southern Mexico fall between these 
extremes. No long-headed peoples are found in 
this area although in northern Mexico some tribes 
approach the long-headed type. 


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CASAS GRANDES 


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*TEPOZTLAN 


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APATERO 
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CHAPULTEPEC Yoh TERRABA Ys SES 
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Map of Mexico and Central America showing the Principal Archeological Sites with a Detail Insert of the Valley of Mexico, 


Cuapter I 
THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 


N 1910 an actual stratification of human products 
| was found in the environs of Mexico City in 
which three principal culture horizons could be 
readily discerned. <A collection made at the time, 
illustrating the objects characteristic of the three 
strata, is on exhibition in the American Museum of 
Natural History. In parts this stratification veri- 
fied theories of culture succession already held by 
students working in this field. Since that time care- 
ful research in several localities has been carried on 
and many authentic specimens from the three layers 
have been brought together. 

The stratigraphic series concerns sedentary life 
after the invention of agriculture. Presumably a 
nomadic horizon preceded that of the first farmers, 
but few traces of this have so far been reported from 
southern Mexico and Central America. The earli- 
est known specimens of the lowest level are not rudi- 
mentary but are well stylized, and opinions vary as 
to the length of time necessary for a theoretical 
formative stage. It seems necessary to consider 
this old civilization as a stratigraphic unit admitting 
the probability that true beginnings await the arche- 
ologist’s spade. 

The culture of the lowest stratum is here called 
archaic, a word meaning old, but not necessarily 
primitive. The word ‘‘horizon’’ carries an implica- 
tion of chronological succession, but it would not be 
wise to insist that archaic remains everywhere rep- 
resent a dead chronological level. Archaic art is 

45 


46 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


oldest in its place of origin, the highlands of Mexico 
and Central America, and in or near this general 
region, it was first succeeded by higher types. On 
the margin of its distribution archaic art, or at 
least the most striking traits of archaic art, lasted 
into much more recent times, and in some places 
may even have survived till the coming of the Span- 
iards. Even when every allowance is made for in- 
dependent expressions which may find nearly the 
same form, it seems that remarkable homogeneity 
and continuity can be demonstrated for products of 
the archaic civilization of the New World. 

Most of the evidence of the old civilization con- 
sists of ceramic objects, but there is also some stone- 
work including implements, ornaments, and crude 
statues. Common household pottery shows local 
variations, but as a rule the archaic wares can be 
recognized as such by qualities of paste, shape, and 
decoration. The motives are simply geometric or 
realistic and there is a lack of formalized designs. 
One process of decoration has wide distribution and 
seems to have been invented well along in the ar- 
chaic period. This is the process of negative paint- 
ing in which the lines of the decorative pattern, 
originally applied in wax or pitch, stand out in the 
natural surface color of the pot against an over- 
painted background. This ‘‘batik”’ pottery extends 
from central Mexico to northern Peru. 

The most interesting and important objects of 
archaic art in clay are human figurines executed in 
peculiar styles. These not only reflect details of 
dress, ete., but also seem to stand for a set of reli- 
gious ideas. Especially a type of figurine repre- 
senting a nude female appears to be an agricultural 
fetish, symbolizing the fecundity of Mother-Earth. 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 47 


Stratification of Remains. Atzcapotzalco was once 
an important center of the Tepanecan tribe situated 
on the shores of lake Texcoco. It was an early ri- 
val of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecan capital, and was 
conquered and partly destroyed in 1439. The prin- 
cipal modern industry of Atzcapot- 
zaleo is brick-making, and several 
mounds and much of the surface of 
the plain have been removed for this 
purpose. In the mounds are found 
many pottery objects of the late Tol- 
tecan period, while on the surface of 
the ground are encountered frag- 
ments of the typical Aztecan pottery 
in use when the Spaniards arrived. 

The stratification of the plain va- 
ries in different places so far as the Fig. 10. Atzca- 
thickness of the different strata 18  potzalco Destroy- 
concerned, but the order is always ed. The temple 
the same. At one locality it is as burns at the 
Seems 11. Hirst comes a. Place of the Ant 
layer of fine soil of voleanic ash ori- 
gin, probably deposited by the wind. This is five 
or six feet in thickness, yellowish at the top, and 
much darker towards the bottom, with streaks and 
discolorations. The Aztecan pottery is found close 
to the surface, while Toltecan pottery occurs in the 
middle and lower sections. Underneath the soil 
layers lies a thick stratum of water-bearing gravel 
mixed with sand. This gravel stratum is possibly 
the old bed of a stream that formerly entered Lake 
Texcoco near this point. In some places it is fifteen 
or eighteen feet in thickness. Scattered throughout 
the gravel are heavy, waterworn fragments of pots 
as well as more or less complete figurines of the 
archaic type. 


4S MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


At other sites, such as Colhuacan, the Toltecan 
layer is of greater thickness and the archaic layer 
of lesser thickness. The remains extend below the 
present level of the water and may indicate that 


10 ee 


di 


Surface finds of Az- 
tecan period. 


Remains of Toltecan 
period. 


Deep stratum of water- 
bearing gravels contain- 
ing remains of archaic 
period. 


Bed rock of hard elay. 


Fig. 11. Diagram of Culture Strata at Atzcapotzaleo, 


considerable changes have taken place in the level 
of the lake. But we must remember that many of 
the ancient settlements were built over the water 
and that land was made in ancient times, as it ds 
today in the gardens of Xochimileo, by deepening 
canals. Archaic remains are also common on the 


THE ARCIIAIC HORIZON 49 


denuded tops of hills which may once have been cov- 
ered by soil. 

A stratification of archeological remains has re- 
cently been determined in Salvador. 


The Cemetery under the Lava. An ancient ceme- 
tery lying under lava has recently been explored in 
Copileo, a suburb of Mexico City. The lava swept 
down from Mount Ajusco in some cataclysm per- 
haps 3000 years-ago, covering many square miles of 
territory to the depth of thirty or forty feet, and 
burying such villages as chanced to He in its path. 
(See Pl. VID). The discovery of human remains 
was made several hundred feet back from the orig- 
inal front of the lava flow in a quarry where lava 
rock was being removed to build roads. Tales of 
clay figurines found under the lava in this quarry had 
been current for years, but no serious investigation 
was made until human burials were met with in the 
earth under the great lava cap. Then a series of 
tunnels was dug and a considerable number of an- 
cient burials were uncovered, but not moved from 
their original position. One now enters an electric- 
hghted graveyard and sees human bodies lying 
exactly as they have lain for untold centuries, with 
the funeral offerings beside them. This enormously 
important find gives us an historical level in mid- 
Archaic. 

Another site, at Cuicuilco, on the opposite side of 
the lava flow, has received attention from archeolo- 
gists. Here a great round mound rises in terraces 
faced with cobblestones. It is surrounded by the 
lava flow and some persons have assumed that the 
mound was already abandoned and in decay when 
the lava flow took place. Perhaps, however, the 


comumiiaad 


[0] 

Plate VI. (a) Cuicuileo. A view showing cobblestone facing 
of mound and lava in contact with apron or causeway; (b) Ar- 
chaic Site under Lava Flow near Mexico City. A local museum 
has been established at this site in electric-lighted tunnels. 


50 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 51 


mound was built on a piece of land that the lava flow 
had spared. There are no contacts between the lava 
and the mound except at the ends of two projecting 
aprons or causeways. The pottery at this site is 
sufficiently different from that found at Copilco. 


Invention of Agriculture. Before examining in 
greater detail the art of the Archaic Horizon let us 
consider its real signifi- 
eance. It is generally 
admitted that America 
was originally populated 
from Asia, but on a cul- 
ture level no higher than 
the Neolithic. The sim- 
ple arts of stone chip- 
ping, basketry, fire-mak- 
ing, ete., were probably 
brought over by the ear- 
lest immigrants, but 
there is abundant evi- 
dence that pottery-mak- 
ing, weaving, and agricul- 
ture were independently Fig. 12. Teocentli or Mexi- 
invented long after the can Fodder Grass. 
original settlement. The 
cultivated plants in the New World are different 
from those of the Old World and there is a vast area 
in northwestern America and northeastern Asia, 
upon the only open line of communication, where 
agriculture and the higher arts have never been 
practised. 

Now the invention of agriculture is an antecedent 
necessity for all the high cultures of the New World. 
It is equally clear that this invention must have 


52 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


taken place in a locality where some important food 
plant grew in a wild state. By far the most 1mpor- 
tant food plant of the New World is maize. While 
this plant has changed greatly under domestication, 
botanists are inclined to find its nearest relative and 
possible progenitor in a wild grass erowing on the 
highlands of Mexico and known by the Aztecan 
name teocentli, which means sacred maize. It is 
_known that maize is at its best in a semi-arid tropi- 
eal environment. It cannot be brought to with- 
stand frost although the growing season can be eut 
down to mect the requirements of a short summer. 
Geographically its use extended from the St. Law- 
rence to the Rio de la Plata and from sea level to 
an elevation of fifteen thousand feet in tropical 
regions. The Mexican highlands occupy the central 
position in the area of its distribution and archexo- 
logical evidence strongly points to this region as 
being the cradle of agriculture and the attendant 
arts. Besides maize, the most widely distributed 
food plants of the New World are beans and 
squashes. Certain other plants were cultivated in 
more restricted areas and may have had different 
places of origin. For instance, manioc was doubt- 
less brought under cultivation in a humid lowland 
region, probably the Amazon Valley, and the same 
may be said of sweet potatoes. The common po- 
tato was found under domestication in Peru and 
there is no very good evidence that its use extended 
into Central America. | 
Irrigation would have been necessary before agri- 
culture could have been developed to any great ex- 
tent on the highlands of Mexico. Although irriga- 
tion is often looked upon as a remarkable sequel of 
the introduction of agriculture into an arid country, 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON Do 


yet from the best historical evidence at our com- 
mand we should rather regard it as a conception 
which accounts for the very origin of agriculture 
itself. The earliest records of cultivated plants are 
from Mesopotamia, Kgypt, Mexico, and Peru where 
irrigation was practised. In these regions are also 
seen the earliest developments of the characteristic 
arts of sedentary peoples, namely, pottery and 
weaving, and the elaborate social and religious 
structures that result from a sure food supply and 
a reasonable amount of leisure. 

If this theory is true we must admit that below 
the Archaic Horizon we should find traces of a 
horizon of non-agricultural peoples, living a no- 
madic life without pottery. Unfortunately, such 
peoples make fewer objects and scatter them more 
widely than do sedentary agriculturists. 

No one on the basis of present knowledge can offer 
more than an opinion concerning the date of the 
invention of agriculture in the New World. The 
thick deposits left by the sedentary peoples argue 
ereat age and the wide area of homogeneous prod- 
ucts argues slow change. In the most favored re- 
gions arehaic art may have been succeeded by higher 
forms shortly before the time of Christ, and per- 
haps 5000 years is not too long a time to allow 
for the diversities of the domesticated plants of 
America. 


Archaic Figurines. Archaic art is characterized 
by figures of men and women modeled in clay and 
sometimes painted. The forms are peculiar and the 
technique well standardized. Most are modeled in 
a flat gingerbread fashion into a gross shape. Upon 
this gross shape special features are indicated by 


Plate VII. Large Archaic Figures found in Graves and offer- 
ing Evidence of Ancient Customs and Arts and also showing a 
Quality of Caricature or possibly Portraiture. These are prob- 
ably late products since they come from Tepie and Jalisco, where 
archaic art maintained itself long after its disappearance from 
central Mexico. 


54 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 55 


stuck-on ribbons and buttons of clay and by goug- 
ings and incisings with some pointed instrument. 


Fig. 18. Archaic Figurines from Central Mexico. The first three 
specimens are from under the lava at Copilco. 


Fig. 14. Archaic Figurines 
Cruz; and Cuesta Blanca, Salvador. 


Zapotlan, Jalisco; Tampico, Vera 


Modeling was done entirely by hand, moulds being 
as yet unknown. The figurines are usually from 


56 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


two to five inches in height and often represent nude 
women in sitting or standing positions with the 
hands upon the knees, hips, or breasts. The heads 
are characteristically of slight depth compared with 
their height, the limbs taper rapidly from a rather 
plump torso and hands and feet are mere knobs with 
incised details. When the figures are intended to 
stand erect, as is often the case, the feet show signs 
of having been pinched between the thumb and fin- 


Fig. 15. Archaic Figurine from Salvador. 


eer of the potter so that they have a forward and 
backward cusp and a broad base of support. 
Groovings are seen in connection with the hair, eyes, 
mouth, fingers, toes, and details of dress and orna- 
ment. Paint is often added to this surface to 
indicate tattooing, textile patterns, ete. 

The eyes of the archaic images—and the mouths 
as well—are made according to several methods. 
First, there is the simple groove; second, a groove 
across an applied ball or button of clay; third, a 
round gouging made by the end of a blunt imple- 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 57. 


ment held vertically; fourth, a round gouging in an 
applied ball or button of clay; fifth, two gougings 
made with a round or chisel-edged implement held 
at an angle. The second form of eye, which resem- 
bles a grain of coffee, and the fifth form with the 
double gouging made from the center outward, are 
found from the northern limits of archaic art in 
Mexico as far south as Colombia and Venezuela. 


Gy EB 
5 6 i 


? 


A 2 3 4 


Fig. 16. Types of Eyes of Archaic Figurines. 


The technique of manufacture naturally changes 
somewhat with the increase in size. There is also 
reason to believe that the largest hollow figures 
come from the end of the Archaic Period in Mexico, 
and especially those that have been found in the 
state of Jalisco and the territory of Tepic. The 
eyelids are often rather carefully modeled and some- 
times an eyeball is put in between the lids. These 
and perforated eyes seem to be the latest characters 
to be developed in the archaic art and it is significant 
that they are not found over such a wide area as the 
first five types of eyes given above. 


Ancient Customs. We may gather much of an 
ethnological nature from the study of these quaint 
figures. Articles of dress and adornment are shown 
as well as musical instruments, weapons, ete. Head- 
dresses may consist of fillets, turbans, and objects 
perched on one side of the head. Noserings and 
earrings are abundantly represented and in consid- 
erable variety. We may be sure that weaving was 
rather highly developed because many garments 


58 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


such as shirts, skirts, and aprons are painted or 
incised with geometric designs. Body painting, or 
tattooing, appears to have been a common usage. 
Among weapons the atlatl, or spear-thrower, was 
already known and knobby clubs seem to have been 
popular. Men are shown beating on drums and 
turtle shells, while women nurse children and carry 
water. Since the large figures of clay are often 


Ld edad %Z 
{DBLAUBEBDDBDIDEDEEY) 7 -\ 
+, - 7 


Sy 


WGA GG, 


SSS 


1 


Z 
Z 
Y 
Z 
g 
4 
g 
g 
g 
Z 
4 
g 
Y 
4 
Z 


Fig. 17. Textile Designs painted on Archaic Effigies. 


found in tombs it is not impossible that they were 
intended to be portraits of the dead. Many have a 
startling quality of caricature. 

Archaic art is a pretty certain index of the reli- 
gion then in vogue. There is a notable absence of 
purposely grotesque or compounded figures repre- 
senting divinities such as will be found in the later 
horizons. We miss entirely the characteristic Mex- 
ican gods such as Tlaloc and Ehecatl. Dogs are 
frequently modeled in clay and were apparently 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 59 


developed into a rather special domestic breed. 
Snakes are sometimes found as a plastic decoration 
on pottery but there are few signs of serpent wor- 
ship. We can find no evidence that human sacrifice 
was practised. The presence of human figurines in 
oeraves has already been mentioned and the sugges- 
tion made that some of them may have been intended 
as portraits of the dead. Nude female figurines in 
sitting or standing positions have an unbroken dis- 
tribution from Mexico into South America and it is 
not unlikely that the primitive agriculturists asso- 
ciated them with fertility and used them as amulets 
to secure good crops. The male figurines may have 
been votive offerings for success at arms. 


Archaic Pottery. The ordinary pottery of the 
Archaic Period from Mexico and Central America 
is heavy and simple in shape. The globular bowl 


Morelos, Mexico. 


with a constricted neck is a common form as well as 
wide-mouthed bowls with or without tripod sup- 
ports. Lugs and handles are very common. When 
plain, the tripods are large, hollow and rounded, 
with a perforation on the under side, but they are 
often modified into faces and feet. Many vessels 
are decorated by the addition of modeled faces en- 
abling us to make a direct connection with the fig- 
ures in clay already described. 

In fact the decoration of pottery of this early pe- 


[d] 

Plate VIII. Two Stages in the Stone Sculptures of Costa 
Rica. Note that in the first series (a) the human body is adapted 
to the surface of a boulder with the arms, legs, and face in low 
relief and with eyes, nose, and mouth all protruding, while in the 
second series (b) the limbs are rounded and partly freed from 
the body. Both are of archaic type but probably not of great age. 


60 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 61 


riod is predominantly in relief. Paint is sparingly 
used and then only in the simplest geometric fashion. 
There is a general lack of conventionalized motives 
presenting animals and other natural forms in 
highly modified ways. In later ages the painted 
decoration is much concerned with the serpent, but 
except for a few winding serpents in relief, this 


motive is not seen on the pottery of the Archaic 
Period. 


Stone Sculptures of the Archaic Period. ‘T'he ear- 
liest stone sculptures are recognized first by resem- 
blance to the ceramic art just described and second 
by a quality which they possess of being archaic in 
an absolute sense. The greater difficulty of working 


Fig. 19. Series showing the Modification of a Celt into a 
Stone Amulet. State of Guerrero, Mexico, probably late Archaic. 


stone as compared with clay and the longer time 
required in the process makes stone art less subject 
to caprice than ceramic art. Perhaps the most 
primitive examples of stone sculpture are boulders 
rudely carved in a semblance of the human form 
with features either sunken or in relief. The arms 
and legs are ordinarily flexed so that the elbows 


[b] 

Plate IX. (a) Stone Sculptures of the Archaic Period. This 
resembles the pottery as regards style: the eyes protrude and the 
limbs are carved in low relief against the body; (b) Typical Site 
of the Archaic Period. The use of pyramids may have begun 
towards the end of this period. 


62 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 63 


meet over the knees. The eyes and mouths in the 
most carefully finished pieces protrude, but the face 
has little or no modeling. Many celts are modified 
into figures by grooves, and faces are frequently 
represented on roughly conical or disk-shaped 
stones. 

We know very little from actual excavations con- 
cerning houses of the Archaic Period. It is likely 
that they were small and impermanent, possibly re- 
sembling the modern huts. The pyramidal mound 
as a foundation for the temple may have been devel- 
oped towards the end of the Archaic Period. It 
would be interesting to determine whether adobe 
moulded into bricks was known at this time, as it 
was at a later time in the same region, or whether 
walls were built up out of fresh mud possibly rein- 
forced by slabs of stone. 


Extensions of the Archaic Horizon. The curious 
objects of ceramic art that we have found deeply 
buried under the débris of higher civilizations in the 
Valley of Mexico can be traced far and wide. They 
are encountered, for the most part, in arid and open 
country, and since we have every reason to believe 
that the earliest agriculture was developed under 
irrigation, it is but natural to find the use of agri- 
culture spreading first into other arid regions. And 
if there was an association between the fertility of 
Mother-Harth and little fetishes representing 
women then these fetishes would spread as part of 
the agricultural complex. 

It now seems possible that the cult of the female 
figurine reached our Southwestern states on the 
earliest level of agricultural life. In sites belonging 


64. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


to Basket-Maker I]IJ—the archeological level of the 
first Pueblo pottery—little female fetishes are found 
and, indeed, are symptomatic of this early culture. 
They are cruder than anything as yet found in Mex- 
ico, but not necessarily older. With them occurs a 
primitive maize doubtless introduced from the south. 

In the Isthmian region, on the other side of the 
Mexican and Central American cradle of New World 
agricultural civilization, there are small figurines 
quite similar to the archaic figurines of Mexico and 
Salvador as regards pose and bodily proportions. 
These are mostly on the level of the first Mayan 
civilization even in cases where the coffee-grain eye 
is used. Around the Nicaraguan lakes the figurines 
of nude females were cast in moulds, a device en- 
tirely unknown on the Archaic Horizon in Mexico. 
In the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica the figurines 
are skilfully modeled with painted designs in black 
on a dark brilliant red, which may represent tattoo- 
ing. In the Chiriqui Province of Panama the fig- 
urines belong in a ceramic group characterized by 
the use of highly conventionalized alligators or 
crocodiles. It has already been stated that designs 
of the Archaic Horizon in Mexico are either geo- 
metric or naively realistic. There is another matter 
that deserves attention: some of these southern 
types of the female fetish occur in distinctly humid 
lands and this, by itself, is a strong argument 
against great antiquity. 

The Isthmian female fetish must have been im- 
planted on the Archaic Horizon even though the 
present examples are mostly from  post-archaic 
times. Perhaps future archeological investigation 
will reveal early stations of a purely archaic type in 


[a] 
Plate X. Widely Distributed Female Figurines: (a) 
Nicaragua; (b) Panama; (c) Venezuela; (d) Island of 


Marajo, Brazil. 


65 


66 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


desert parts of Costa Rica and Panama. Tull then 
a controlling fact is that Mayan religious art avoids 
all references to sex and cannot, therefore, possibly 
be held responsible for the culture trait of the fe- 
male fetish. But this fetish does agree with a pre- 
Mayan concept, as we have seen. 

The ancient gold work of Costa Rica and Panama 
also reflects the technique of archaic art, although 
most of it, to judge by the religious significance of 
many of the subjects and designs, was made long 
after the Archaic Period. Just as the pottery fig- 
urines were built up by the addition of ribbons and 
buttons of clay to a generalized form so the patterns 
for gold castings were made by adding details in 
rolled wax or resin to a simple underlying form of 
the same material. 

In Colombia and Venezuela archaic art is common 
in arid and mountainous territory. Local develop- 
ments confuse the issue of time. Various cultural 
successions took place here, the Quimbaya, Sinu, 
and Tairona Indians having developed civilizations 
with possible Mayan affiliations in some features. 
The archaic figurines of Colombia are decorated 
with designs made by the process of negative paint- 
ing through the medium of wax. This process is 
pretty generally distributed from central Mexico to 
northern Peru. The indications are that it was in- 
vented long before the rise of the Mayas, and once 
invented remained popular. 

As regards Venezuela the figurines of men and 
women from the Eastern Andes are often strikingly 
similar to those of Mexico, especially in such mat- 
ters as eyes made by double gougings. As a rule, 
these figurines are painted. Around Lake Valencia 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 67 


they are made without paint, but in combination 
with pottery designs showing the beginnings of con- 
ventionalization. Here there is added the circum- 
stance that wild Carib tribes, coming down the 
Orinoco, drove the earlier inhabitants out over the 
West Indies. This flight must have taken place 
centuries before the coming of the Spaniards. 

The archeology of the lower Amazon is best 
known from the remains found on the Island of 
Marajo where female figurines exhibit close simi- 
larity in pose to specimens from Venezuela and 
Mexico. This culture of Marajo seems to have been 
disrupted before the coming of Europeans. But it 
may be significant that crude fetishes representing 
women are used at the present time by tribes on the 
margins of the old Amazonian culture area. The 
earliest level at Ancon, Peru, yields ware recalling 
northern products. Nude females, apparently of 
somewhat later time, however, are in standing 
rather than sitting pose. It seems, then, that the 
trail of dissemination of agriculture and the ancil- 
lary arts can be followed across the northern part 
of South America and southward along the Andes 
to Peru. The greatest similarities must be sought 
in the oldest objects and some leeway granted in the 
ease of marginal survivals. 

It is proper to speak of agriculture, pottery-mak- 
ing, and weaving as the great civilizing complex. 
Few inventions could break down the ordinary 
boundaries of language and environment, as these 
had done. Yet, after the discovery of America, the 
horse, introduced by the Spaniards, spread rapidly 
through native tribes, modifying their lives greatly. 
It is capable of demonstration that with the horse 


68 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


went two types of saddle—the pack saddle and the 
riding saddle. Similarly in the first rapid spread of 
agriculture went pots and woven garments. 

Two maps of the New World are given herewith: 
the first showing the extent of the Archaic Horizon 
and the second the nnal distribution of pottery 
among the American Indians and the final distribu- 
tion of agriculture. The agricultural area is sub- 
divided according to, first, the arid land type where 
irrigation is generally practised; second, the humid 
land type; and third, the temperate land type. The 
first type of agriculture appears to be the earliest 
and the range coincides, for the most part, with the 
range of the archaic pottery art. 

Summary. In concluding this section let us sum 
up the general facts of ancient American history as 
these appear in relation to the archeological evi- 
dences of the Archaic Horizon. 


I. Pre-Arechaic Horizon 


The peopling of the New World from Asia 
by tribes on the nomadic plane of culture. 


TI. The Archaic Horizon 


Invention and primary dissemination of ag- 
riculture, together with pottery-making and 
loom-weaving. Homogeneous culture with un- 
developed religion and unsymbolic art ad- 
justed to arid tropics. 


III. Post-Archaie Horizon 


Specialized cultures in North, Central, and 
South America dependent upon agriculture. 
Strong local developments in esthetic arts, re- 


Plate XI. Distribution of the Archaic Culture. The areas in 
solid black show the distribution of figurines of the archaic type; 
the areas in dots show the probable extension of pottery on the 
Archaic Horizon; the dotted lines give the ultimate extension of 
pottery. 


69 


Sab ee 


J Sg os (075 
: 
‘ 


yee cees Ss 


ming . 


iy i Bp ‘ 


» st ; 


Plate XII. Distribution of Agriculture in the New World. 
The dotted line gives the limits of pottery; solid black, agriculture 
in arid regions of considerable altitude, mostly with irrigation; 


> 
dotted areas, agriculture under humid lowland conditions; lined 
area, agriculture under temperate conditions, 


70 


THE ARCHAIC HORIZON A 


ligious ideas, and social institutions. Agri- 
culture extended to humid tropical and tem- 
perate regions. 


We will now make an effort to analyze still further 
the historical levels in the Post-Archaic Horizon. 


-doiov ay} JO OpIS oy} OJUL Ynd sey JO 


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M UL BZB[q }Boily) oy} Uses SI 


AV] 


Craprer IL 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 


which we will now turn our attention was 

developed in the humid lowlands of Central 
America and especially in the Yucatan Peninsula. 
Artists are everywhere of the opinion that the seulp- 
tures and other products of the Mayas deserve to 
rank among the highest art products of the world, 
and astronomers are amazed at the progress made 
by this people in the measuring of time by the ob- 
served movements of the heavenly bodies. More- 
over, they invented a remarkable system of hiero- 
olyphic writing by which they were able to record 
facts and events and they built great cities of stone 
that attest a degree of wealth and splendor beyond 
anything seen elsewhere in the New World. 

The Mayan culture was made possible by the 
agricultural conquest of the rich lowlands where 
the exuberance of nature can only be held in check 
by organized effort. On the highlands the prepara- 
tion of the land is comparatively easy, owing to 
scanty natural vegetation and a control vested in 
irrigation. On the lowlands, however, great trees 
have to be felled and fast-growing bushes kept down 
by untiring energy. But when nature is truly tamed 
she returns recompense many fold to the daring 
farmer. Moreover, there is reason to believe that 
the removal of the forest cover over large areas af- 
fects favorably the conditions of life which under a 
canopy of leaves are hard indeed. 

The principal crops of the Mayas were probably 

73 


ae wonderful culture of the Mayan Indians to 


[>| 

Plate XIV. (a) View of the Plaza at Copan from the North- 
western Corner. This view shows the monuments in position and 
the steps which may have served as seats; (b) View Across the 
Artificial Acropolis at Copan. A sunken court is shown and the 
bases of two temple structures of the Sixth Century. Photographs 
by Peabody Museum Expedition. 


74 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 15 


much the same as on the highlands, with maize as 
the great staple. Varieties favorable to a humid 
environment had doubtless been developed from the 
highland stock by selective breeding as agriculture 
worked its way down into the lowlands. Archaic 
art appears along the edges of the Mayan Area in 
the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and in the Uloa Val- 
ley, Honduras. In both these regions are also 
found clay figurines that mark the transition in 
style between the archaic and the Mayan, as well 
as finished examples of the latter. There can be 
no doubt, then, that the archaic art of Mexico marks 
an earlier horizon than the Mayan. Whether or not 
it was once laid entirely across the Mayan Area can- 
not be decided on present data but it seems unlikely. 
We have already seen that this first art was distrib- 
uted primarily across arid and open territory. 

With their calendarial system already in working 
order the Mayas appear on the threshold of history 
600 years before the Christian Era, according to a 
correlation with European chronology that will be 
explained later. The first great cities were Tikal in 
northern Guatemala and Copan in western Hon- 
duras, both of which had a long and glorious exist- 
ence. Many others sprang into prominence at a 
somewhat later date; for example, Palenque, Yax- 
chilan or Menché, Piedras Negras, Seibal, Naranjo, 
and Quirigua. The most brilliant period was from 
300 to 600 A. D., after which all these cities appear 
to have been abandoned to the forest that soon 
closed over them. The population moved to north- 
ern Yucatan, where it no longer reacted strongly 
upon the other nations of Central America and 
where it enjoyed a second period of brilliancy sev- 
eral hundred years later. 


[>] 


Plate XV. (a) Model of the Temple of the Cross, Palenque, 
designed to show the Construction. The building has three en- 
trances separated by piers. The middle partition is thickened 
to support the weight of the roof comb which is a trellis for 
stucco decoration. The sanctuary is a miniature temple in the 
inner chamber. The walls are built of slabs of limestone set in 
lime cement; (b) Detail of Frieze on the Temple of the Cross. 
The upper band is the sky with stars and planets. A reptilian 
monster occupies the main panel with human figures as supple- 
mentary decorations upon his legs. The Temple of the Cross 
represents the highest achievement of the First Empire architects, 
Fifth Century after Christ. 


76 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION Five 


Architecture. The idea of a civic center is ad- 
mirably illustrated in Mayan cities, particularly 
those of the first briliant period. The principal 
structures are built around courts or plazas and 
there is usually an artificial acropolis which is a 

great terraced mound serving as a common base or 


= = 
Pe 


L 


[a] 
Fig. 20. Groundplans of Yaxchilan Temples: (a) Struc- 
ture 42; (b) Structure 23. 


platform from which the individual pyramidal bases 
of several temples rise. At some sites this acrop- 
olis is a natural hill which has been trimmed down 
or added to, but at other sites it is entirely arti- 
ficial. At Copan there is an especially fine example 
of artificial platform mound rising from one end 
of the Great Plaza and affording space for several 


78 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


temples, as well as for sunken courts with stepped 
sides that may have been theatres. The river wash- 
ing against one side of this great mound has re- 
moved perhaps a third of it and made a vertical sec- 
tion that shows the method of construction. It is 
apparent that the mound was enlarged and old walls 
and floors buried. 


+10) AY : 
my 


¢ 
iN 


\ 

De. 

an 
Q 


Vs 
NN 


At 


( 
TW 
h 


>. 


Fig. 21. Cross-section of Typical Mayan Temple in Northern 
Yucatan: a, upper cornice; b, medial cornice; ¢, upper zone; 
d, lower zone; e, wooden lintels; f, exterior doorway; g, interior 
doorway; h, offset at spring of vault; 7, cap stone. 


Mayan buildings are of two principal kinds. One 
is a temple pure and simple and the other has been 
called a palace. The temple is a rectangular struc- 
ture crowning a rather high pyramid that rises in 
several steps or terraces. As a rule the temple has 
a single front with one or more doorways and is 
approached by a broad stairway. The pyramid is 
ordinarily a solid mass of rubble and earth faced 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 79 


with cement or cut stone and rarely contains com- 
partments. Some temples have but a single cham- 
ber while others have two or more chambers, the 
central or innermost one being specially developed 
intoa sanctuary. The so-called palaces are clusters 
of rooms on low and often irregular platforms. 
These palaces may have been habitations of the 
priests and nobility. The common people doubtless 
lived in palm-thatched huts similar to those used to- 
day in the same region. 

The typical Mayan construction is a faced con- 
crete. The limestone, which abounds in nearly all 
parts of the Mayan Area, was burned into lime. 
This was then slaked to make mortar and applied to 
a mass of broken limestone. The facing stones 
were smoothed on the outside and left rough hewn 
and pointed on the inside. It is likely that these 
facing stones were held in place between forms and 
the lime, mortar, and rubble filled in between. The 
resulting wall was essentially monolithic. The 
rooms of Mayan buildings are characteristically 
vaulted but the roof is not a true arch with a key- 
stone. The vault, like the walls, is a solid mass of 
concrete that grips the cut stone veneer and that 
must have been held in place by a false work form 
while it was hardening. The so-called corbelled 
arch of overstepping stones was doubtless known to 
the Mayan builders but was little used. Taking the 
single rectangular room as the unit of construction 
the width was limited to the span of the vault, which 
seldom exceeded twelve feet, while the length was 
indeterminate. 

The first variation from the temple with one 
rectangular room was the two-roomed structure 
with one chamber directly behind the other. In 


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THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION Sl 


this case there were two vaulted compartments 
separated from each other by a common supporting 
wall pierced by one or more doorways. The inner 
room was naturally more dimly lighted than the other 
one and as a result was modified into a sanctuary, 
or holy of holies, enhanced by sculptures and paint- 
ings, while the outer room developed gradually into 
a portico. The outer wall was eut by doorways till 
only pier-like sections remained; and finally these 
pliers were replaced by square or round columns. 
The development of the Mayan temple may be 
traced through a thousand years of change and 
adjustment. 

Much attention was paid by Mayan builders to 
the question of stability which was accomplished 
directly by keeping the center of gravity of the 
principal masses within the supporting walls rather 
than by the use of binding stones. The cross-section 
of a two-roomed temple of late date will illustrate 
how this was done. There are three principal 
masses, one over the front wall, one over the medial 
partition, and one over the back wall. The roof 
where these sections join is of no great thickness. 
The central mass is symmetrical and, if the mortar 
has the proper cohesiveness, very stable. For the 
front and back masses the projection of the upper 
or frieze zone tends to counterbalance the overhang 
of half the vault. In the earlier temples the upper 
zone of the facade often slopes backward so that 
the balance is not so perfect. 

So far we have given brief space to the question 
of elevations. Taken vertically there are three 
parts to the Mayan building: first, the substructure 
or pyramidal base; second, the structure proper; 
third, the superstructure. In the case of temples 


Plate XVII. A Sealed Portal Vault in the House of the Gov- 
ernor at Uxmal, a Building of the Second Empire, probably Thir- 
teenth Century. The veneer character of the cut stone comes out 
clearly. Peabody Museum photograph, 


82 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 83 


the structure proper is one story in height. Two 
and three stories are rather common in palaces, but 
the upper stories are in most cases built directly 
over a solid core and not over the rooms of the lower 
story. The upper stories, therefore, recede, so that 
the building presents a terraced or pyramidal pro- 
file. One building at Tikal is five stories in height, 
in three receding planes, the three uppermost stories 
being one above the other. In a tower at Palenque 
we have an example of four stories but this is 
unusual. 

On top of the building proper, especially if it is 
a temple, we frequently find a superstructure. This 
is a sort of crest, or roof wall, usually pierced by 
windows. When this wall rises from the center 
line of the roof it is called a roof comb or roof crest, 
and when it rises from the front wall it is called a 
flying facade. The highest temples in the Mayan 
Area are those of Tikal that attain a total height of 
about 175 feet, counting pyramid and superstructure. 

Massive Sculptural Art. The decoration of Mayan 
buildings may be considered under three heads: 
first, interior decoration; second, facade decoration; 
third, supplementary monuments. In many temples 
at Yaxchilan, Tikal, ete., are found splendidly 
sculptured lintels of stone or wood. At Copan we 
see wall sculptures that adorn the entrance to the 
sanctuary and at Palenque finely sculptured tablets 
let into the rear wall of the sanctuary. Elsewhere 
are occasional examples of mural paintings, sculp- 
tured door jambs, decorated interior steps, ete. 

The facade decorations of the earlier Mayan 
structures are freer and more realistic than those 
of the later buildings. In many cases they consist 
of figures of men, serpents, etc., modeled in stucco 


84 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


or built up out of several nicely fitted blocks of 
stone. Grotesque faces also occur. In the later 
styles, decoration consists largely of ‘‘mask panels,”’ 

which are grotesque front view faces arranged to 
fill rectangular panels, but there is an increasing 
amount of “purely geometric ornament. Themasked 
panels represent in most instances a highly elab- 
orated serpent’s face which sometimes carries the 


ai Eee 


i 


Fig. 22. Mask Panel over Doorway at Xkichmook. Yucatan. 


special markings of one of the greater gods. These 
panels, epngidercd historically, pass through some 
interesting developments. Angular representations 
of serpent heads in profile are sometimes used at the 
sides of doorways. 

The supplementary monuments are stele and 
altars. These are monolithic sculptures that are 
often set up in definite relation to a building either 
on the terraces or at the foot of the stairway. The 
stele are great plinths or slabs of stone carved on 
one or more sides with the figures of priests and 
warriors loaded down with religious symbols. The 
altars are small stones usually placed in front of the 
stele. Many stele and altars are set up in plazas 
and have no definite architectural quality. 


[b] 
Plate XVIII. (a) Realistic Designs on Vases from Chama, 
’ Guatemala, representing the Best Mayan Period in Pottery; 
. (b) The Quetzal as represented on a Painted Cylindrical Vase 
from Copan. Bands of hieroglyphs are commonly found on 


Mayan Pottery. 


85 


*-MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


86 


Se 


Design on Engraved Pot representing a Tiger seated 


in a Wreath of Water Lilies. 


Fig, 23. 


Northern Yueatan, 


SAARAAARAT SANSAAES GROOAAT ARES . 


Py ES GP ET 


Painted Design on Cylindrical Bowl showing Serpent 


from a Shell. 


Fig. 24. 


issuin 


ador. 


Salv 


Oo 
Lo) 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 87 


Minor Arts. While the richly ornamented tem- 
ples and the great monoliths attract first attention 
as works of art, the humbler products of the potter, 
the weaver, and the lapidary also attained to grace 
and dignity. 

The Mayas were expert potters and employed a 
variety of technical processes in the decoration of 
their wares, such as painting, modeling, engraving, 
and stamping. We can only take time to examine 
a few examples of the best works, leaving the com- 
moner products practically undescribed. Suffice it 
to say, that tripod dishes were much used, as well 
as bowls, bottle-necked vessels, and cylindrical 
vases, and that the common decorative use of hiero- 
glyphs serves to mark off Mayan pottery from that 
of other Central American peoples. The realistic 
designs are drawn in accordance with the highest 
principles of decorative art. Serpents, monkeys, 
jaguars, various birds, as well as priests and super- 
natural beings, are used as subjects for pottery em- 
bellishment. Geometric decoration is also much 
used. 

The polychrome pottery is rare and exceptionally 
beautiful, with designs relating to religious sub- 
jects. The background color of these cylindrical 
vases is usually orange or yellow, the designs are 
outlined in black, and the details filled in with deli- 
eate washes of red, brown, white, ete. The surface 
bears a high polish made by rubbing. Plate XVIII 
reproduces the design units on two vases from 
Chama, Guatemala. The first example pictures a 
seated man with a widespreading headdress made 
of two conventional serpent heads from the ends 
of which issue the plumes of the quetzal. The hiero- 
elyphs are Mayan day signs—Ben and Imix on the 


88 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


left and Kan and Caban on the right. The second 
example presents a god before an altar. This god 
has the face of an old man and his body is attached 
to a spiral shell. This divinity was probably asso- 
ciated with the end of the year. 

In the next illustration an engraved design on a 
bowl from northern Yucatan is given. A jaguar 


ee rerttsTsicdilsieeclidlldés 

EEK 
RREEERRRR\R 
os ” za, | O | VAP] ree |e} 


(2) 


KKZEO TT 


Fig. 25. Mayan Basket represented in Stone Sculpture. 


attired in the dress of man is seated in a wreath 
of water lilies. After the vessel had been formed, 
but before it had been fired, this design was made 
by cutting away the background and incising finer 
details on the original surfaces. Other designs in 
relief were obtained by direct modeling or by 
stamping. The stamps were moulds or negatives 
made from bas-relief patterns. 

The textile arts of the ancient Mayas can be re- 
covered in part from a study of the monuments since 
the designs on many garments are reproduced in 
delicate relief. The designs are mostly all-over 
geometric patterns, but borders reproducing the 
typical ‘‘celestial band,’’ a line of astronomical 
symbols, are also seen. The techniques of brocade 
and lace were understood by the ancient weavers. 
In the minor textile art of basketry the products 
must also have ranked high; a typical basket pic- 
tured on a lintel is given in Fig. 29. 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 89 


Jade and other semi-precious stones were carved 
by the Mayas into beautiful and fantastic shapes. 
There was a considerable use of mosaic veneer on 
masks and other ceremonial objects. Metal was 
unknown during the first centuries of Mayan flores- 
cence, later it was rare and could not be used for 
tools, but the working of gold and copper in the 
manufacture of ornaments was on a high plane. 

Having now passed in brief review the objective 
side of Mayan remains, let us turn our attention to 
the subjective. 


The Serpent in Mayan Art. Mayan art is strange 
and unintelligible at first sight, but after careful 
study many wonderful qualities appear in it. In 
the knowledge of foreshortening and composition, 
the Mayas were superior to the Egyptians and As- 
syrians. They could draw the human body in pure 
profile and in free and graceful attitudes and they 
could compose several figures in a rectangular panel 
so that the result satisfies the eye of a modern artist. 

But, unfortunately for our fuller understanding, 
the human form had only a minor interest because 
the gods were not in the image of man and the art 
was essentially religious. The gods were at best 
half human and half animal with grotesque elabora- 
tions. The high esthetic qualities were therefore 
wasted on subjects that appear trivial to many of 
us. But, as we break away more and more from the 
shackles of our own artistic conventions, we shall be 
able to appreciate the many beauties of ancient 
American sculpture. 

The serpent motive controlled the character of 
Mayan art and was of first importance in all subse- 
quent arts in Central America and Mexico. The 


90) MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


serpent was seldom represented realistically, and 
yet we may safely infer that the rattlesnake was the 
prevailing model. Parts of other creatures were 
added to the serpent’s body, such as the plumes of 
the trogon or quetzal, the teeth of the jaguar, and 
the ornaments of man. The serpent was idealized 


Fig. 26. Typical Elaborated Serpents of the Mayas. The ser- 
pent with a human head in its mouth is from Yaxchilan. In this 
example the writhing movements of the serpent’s tail are probably 
intended by the added scrolls. The plumed serpent is from Chichen 
Itza. 


and the lines characteristic of it entered into the 
delineation of many subjects distinct from the ser- 
pent itself. Scrolls and other sinuous details were 
attached to the serpent’s body and human orna- 
ments such as earplugs, noseplugs, and even head- 
dresses were added to its head. Finally, a human 
head was placed in the distended jaws. The Mayas 
may have intended to express the essential human 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION Qi 


Fig. 27. Conventional Serpent of the Mayas used for Decorative 
Purposes: a, body; b, ventral scale; c, dorsal scale; d, nose; e, nose- 
plug; f, incisor tooth; g, molar tooth; h, jaw; 7, eye; j, supraorbital 
plate; k, earplug; 1, ear pendant; m, curled fang; n, tongue, 0, lower 
jaw; p, beard; q, incisor tooth. 


9? MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


intelligence of the serpent in this fashion. The 
serpent with a human head in its mouth doubtless 
belongs in the same category as the partly human- 
ized gods of Egypt, Assyria, and India. It ilus- 
trates the partial assumption of human form by a 
beast divinity. The features combined are so pecu- 


c 


=e all ae 
we 
WLS2-GD 
g. 


Fig. 28. Upper Part of Serpent Head made into a Fret Orna- 
ment; a, Ixkun; b, Quirigua; ¢, d, g, Copan; e, Naranjo; f, Seibal. 


liar and unnatural that the influence of Mayan art 
can be traced far and wide through Central America 
and Mexico by comparative study of the serpent 
motive. 

A typical serpent head in profile (with the human 
head omitted) as developed by the Mayas for deco- 
rative purposes is reproduced in Fig. 27 with the 
parts lettered and named. It will be noted that the 
lines of interest in this design are either vertical or 
horizontal, although the parts themselves have sinu- 
ous outlines. Two features of the typical serpent’s 
body enter widely into the enrichment of all kinds of 
subjects. One of these is the double outline which 
is derived from the line paralleling the base of the 
serpent’s body and serving to mark off the belly 
region. The second feature is the small circle ap- 
plied in bead-like rows to represent scales. The 
profile serpent head is also seen in scrolls and frets 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 93 


that elaborate many details of dress worn by the 
human beings carved on the monuments. The front 
view of the serpent’s head is usually extended to 
fill an oblong panel and is often used to decorate 
the base of a monument or the facade of a building. 
There are several monsters closely connected with 
the serpent that will be discussed as the description 
proceeds. 


The Human Figure. The human beings pictured 
on Mayan monuments are captives, rulers, and 
priests or worshippers. The captives are poor 
eroveling creatures, bound by rope, held by the hair 
or crushed under foot to fill a rectangular space over 


(CL te in 


E ay Soe 


KZ = ena fs, : 
ie “is Ce ee 


—Z 


Fig. 29. Sculpture on Front of Lintel at Yaxchilan showing Man 
holding Two-Headed Serpent with a Grotesque God’s Head in each of 
its Mouths. 


which the conqueror stands. The rulers and priests 
are hard to distinguish from each other, perhaps be- 
cause the government was largely theocratic and the 
ruler was looked upon as the spokesman of divinity. 
The spear and shield of war served to mark off cer- 
tain human beings from others who carry religious 
objects such as the Ceremonial Bar and the Manikin 
Scepter. 

Elaborate thrones on several monuments are can- 
opied over by the arched body of the Two-headed 
Dragon that bears symbols of the planets. Over 


94 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


all is seen the great Serpent Bird with outstretched 
wings. Upon the throne is seated a human being 
who may safely be called a king and a line of foot- 
prints on the front of the throne may symbolize 
ascent. On other monuments the commanding per- 
sonage wears the mask of a god and wields a club to 


Fig. 30. Types of Human Heads on the Lintels of Yaxchilan. 


subdue or scatters grain to placate. On the great 
majority of monuments the human beings, richly 
attired in ceremonial regalia and carrying a variety 
of objects, possibly present the great warriors and 
priests of the day. Many of the early sculptures 
are stiff and formal, but in a number of instances ~ 
the quality of actual portraiture is convincing. 


Design, Composition, and Perspective. It is diffi- 
cult to compare directly the graphic and plastic arts 
of different nations where the subject matter is 
diverse unless we compare them in accordance with 
absolute principles of design, composition, and per- 
spective drawing. The Mayas produced one of the 
few really great and coherent expressions of beauty 
so far given to the world and their influence in 
America was historically as important as was that 
of the Greeks in Europe. Set as we are in the ma- 
trix of our own religious and artistic conventions, 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 95 


we find it difficult to approach sympathetically 
beauty that is overcast with an incomprehensible re- 
ligion. When we can bring ourselves to feel the 
serpent symbolism of the Mayan artists as we feel, 


a@=G5ru ’ OE 

oy <> JF oN 

ae), pea Vo ~\ 
| Ay || 


pe ela ay 

ears Ging 

aN 
ao ai | 


will 


< 
SS) 
oss 


Fig. 31. Sculpture on Upper Part of Stela 11, Seibal. The man 
wears an inlaid mask, an elaborate headdress, and a collar of shell 
and jade. 


for instance, the conventional halo that crowns the 
ideal head of Christ, then we shall be able to recog- 
nize the truly emotional qualities of Mayan sculp- 
tures. 


Plate XIX. Stela 13, Piedras Negras. This 
shattered monument is one of the finest examples of 
Mayan sculpture, showing a fine sense of composition 
and a considerable knowledge of perspective. Dated 
March 27, 511 A. D. 


96 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION Q7 


It is generally recognized that design to be suc- 
cessful must contain order of various sorts (in 
measurements, shapes, directions, tones, colors, 
ete.). In the simpler forms of decorative art the 
restrictions of technical process, as in basketry, may 
impose order, but in freehand sculpture it must 
come from an educated sense of beauty involving 
selection and the reproduction of the finest qualities. 
Design at its highest is embodied in the Mayan 
hieroglyphs. Given spaces had to be filled with 
given symbols and the results attained were uni- 
formly excellent. Although the influence of the ser- 
pent led to the great use of tapering flame-like 
masses in nearly all Mayan designs, still dominant 
vertical and horizontal lines of interest were main- 
tained. 

The panel and lintel sculptures show composition 
achieved by simple and subtle methods. The sweep- 
ing plumes of headdresses were skilfully used to fill 
in corners, while blocks of glyphs were placed in open 
spaces that might otherwise distract the attention. 
Many compositions appear overcrowded to us, but 
this fault decreases with knowledge of the subject 
matter. Also, the Mayas appear to have painted 
their sculptures so that the details were emphasized 
by color contrast. 

In perspective as applied to the human figure 
the Mayas were far ahead of the Egyptians and 
Assyrians, since they could draw the body in front 
view and pure profile without the distortions seen 
in the Old World. They were even able to make 
eraceful approximations of a three-quarters view, 
as may be seen in Plate XIX, where the raising 
of the nearer shoulder has a distinct perspective 
value. 


98 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


The Mayan Pantheon. We have seen that during 
the earliest culture of Mexico and Central America 
there were no figurines of individualized gods, 
simply straightforward representations of human 
beings and animals. With the Mayan culture, how- 
ever, we enter upon an epoch of rich religious sym- 
bolism. The serpent, highly conventionalized as we 
have just seen, and variously combined with ele- 
ments taken from the quetzal, the jaguar, and even 


Fig. 32. The Ceremonial Bar. A Two-Headed Serpent held in 
the Arms of Human Beings on Stele: a, Stela P, Copan; b, Stela 
N, Copan. 


from man himself, appears as a general indication 
of divinity. The Ceremonial Bar, essentially a two- 
headed serpent carrying in its mouths the heads of 
an important god, is one of the earliest religious 
objects. The heads that appear in the mouths are 
usually those of a Roman-nosed or of a Long-nosed 
god. Other representations of divinities are com- 
bined with the Two-headed Dragon that also has 
reptilian characters; still others appear as head- 
dresses and masks on human figures. Strange to 
say, the gods are supplementary to the human fig- 
ures on all the early sculptures. In the codices, 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 99 


however, they are represented apart from man, as 
engaged in various activities and contests. Mayan 
religion was clearly organized on a dualistic basis. 
The powers for good are in a constant struggle with 
the powers for evil and most of the benevolent di- 
vinities have malevolent duplicates. In actual form 
the gods are partly human, but ordi- 
narily the determining features are 
grotesque variations from the human 
face and figure. While beast associ- 
ations are sometimes discernible, they 
are rarely controlling. Sometimes, 
however, beast gods are represented 
in unmistakable fashion, good exam- 
ples being the jaguar, the bat, and 
the moan bird. All of these have hu- 
man bodies and animal heads. 

The head position in the Mayan 
pantheon may with some assurance 
be given to a god who has been called Fig. 33. The 
the Roman-nosed god and who is Manikin Scep- 
probably to be identified with Itzamna. ter, a Grotesque 
According toSpanish writers Itzamna Figure with one 
was regarded by the Mayas as the cre- [es modified in- 
ator and father of all, the inventor of gi aaeeen® 
writing, the founder of the Mayan civilization, and 
the god of light and life. This Zeus of the Mayas 
is represented in the form of an old man with a high 
forehead, a strongly aquiline nose, and a distended 
mouth, toothless, or with a single enlarged tooth in 
front. On the ancient monuments he is frequently 
seen in the mouths of the Ceremonial Bar and also 
in association with the sun, moon, and the planet 
Venus. In the codices he is shown as a protector 
of the Maize God and in other acts beneficial to 


100 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


man. There is, however, a malevolent aspect of 
this god or possibly another being who imitates his 
features but not his qualities. This being may be 
an old woman goddess who wears a serpent head- 
dress and who is associated with destructive floods, 
the very opposite of life-giving sunshine. 

Of almost equal importance to the Roman-nosed 
god is a god whose face is a more or less humanized 
serpent. His proper name is Ah Bolon Dzacab. 


Fig. 34. The Two-Headed Dragon, a Monster that passes 
through many Forms in Mayan Sculpture. It apparently sym- 
bolizes calamities at inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun. 
Copan. 


On the early monuments this god is shown in con- 
nection with the Ceremonial Bar. He also appears 
at a somewhat later date as the Manikin Scepter, 
an object in the form of a manikin that is held out 
by a leg modified into a serpent’s body. Since a 
celt is usually worn in the forehead of the manikin 
it has been suggested that this curious object repre- 
sents a ceremonial battle-ax. The face of the Long- 
nosed god is frequently worn by high priests and 
rulers either as a headdress or, more rarely, as a 
mask. It is possible that this divinity was regarded 
as primarily a war god but in the codices he is 
evidently a universal deity of varied powers. spe- 
cially he is shown in connection with water and 
maize and it seems likely that his principal function 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 101 


was to cause life-giving rain. A malevolent variant 
of the Long-nosed god has a bare bone for the lower 
jaw, a sun symbol on his forehead, and a headdress 
consisting of three other symbols. This head is 
associated with the Two-headed Dragon, a monster 
which brings calamity at times of the inferior con- 
junction of Venus and the Sun. 

Ah Puch, the Lord of Death, was the principal 
malevolent god. His body as figured in the codices 
is a strange compound of skeletal and full-fleshed 
parts. His head is a skull except for the normal 


Fig. 35. Gods in the Dresden Codex: God B, the Long- 
Nosed God of Rain; God A, the Death God; God G, the Sun 
God. 


ears. His spinal column is usually bare and some- 
times the ribs as well, but the arms and legs are 
often covered with flesh. As added symbols black 
spots and dotted lines are sometimes drawn upon 
his body and a curious device like a percentage sign 
upon his cheek. The Death God in complete form 
is rarely shown in the earlier sculptures, although 
grinning skulls and interlacing bones occur as tem- 


[b] 

Plate XX. (a) Top of Stela 1 at Yaxchilan, dealing with 
the Heavens. The Sky God is seen in the center with the moon 
at the left and the sun at the right. Below these is the Two- 
Headed Dragon bearing planet signs and additional heads of the 
Sky God; (b) Analogous Detail of Stela 4, Yaxchilan. The moon 
is at the right and the sun at the left. The figure in the sun is 
male and that in the moon, female. The faces of the Sky God 
hang from the lower part of the Two-Headed Dragon, being at- 
tached to it by symbols of the planet Venus, 


102 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 103 


ple decorations. As has already been pointed out, 
Mayan religion was strongly dualistic and the evil 
powers are usually to be identified by death symbols 
such as a bare bone for the lower jaw, or the per- 
centage symbol noted above on the cheek. Death 
heads of several kinds are frequent in the hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions. 

The Maize God, figured so frequently on the an- 
cient monuments and in the Mayan codices may be 
the same that in the time of the Conquest was called 
Yum Kaax, Lord of the Harvest. He is represented 
as a youth with a leafy headdress that is possibly 
meant to represent an opening ear of maize. The 
kan sign, a grain of maize, is constantly associated 
with him. He appears to be at the mercy of the evil 
deities when not protected by the good ones. 

Space considerations forbid a further study of 
Mayan gods. Suffice it to say that several other 
divinities are shown in the sculptures and codices 
including a somewhat youthful appearing war god, 
as well as a more mature and grotesque war god 
called Ek Ahau, the Black Captain. There is an 
old god with a shell attached to his body, a god with 
the face of a monkey who is associated with the 
North Star, a god in the form of a frog and another 
in the form of a bat. In the Spanish accounts we 
can also glean scanty information concerning Ix- 
chel, Goddess of the Rainbow and mate of Itzamna; 
Ixtubtun, patroness of jade carvers; Ixchebelyax, 
patroness of the art of weaving and decorating cloth, 
etc. 


How Mayan History has been Recovered. The ar- 
rangement of Mayan remains on a time scale is now 
an accomplished fact thanks to a correlation which 


104. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


permits us to read the dates on ancient monuments 
in terms of the Gregorian calendar and the Christian 
era. Early attempts to achieve this result met with 
widely varying results. Most of these attempts 
were made by developing a single line of evidence 
and some were based on assumptions that can now 
be disproved. But no single line of evidence should 
be deemed sufficient to decide this all important 
question. 

The general course of Mayan history is indicated 
unmistakably by four principal lines of evidence 
capable of being correlated with each other. These 
are :— 

1. Stratigraphic sequences in pottery, stylistic se- 
quences in sculpture, structural sequences in archi- 
tecture, etc. 

9. Traditional history preserved in the Books of 
Chilam Balam and representing a knowledge of past 
events at the time of the Spanish Conquest. 

3. Dates inscribed on a great number of monu- 
ments in terms of the ancient Mayan time counts. 

4, Astronomical checks on these inscribed dates. 

The artistic position of a monument may be used 
to validate the contemporaneous character of an 
inscribed date, otherwise interpretable as referring 
to the past or future, or it may serve to fix a re- 
peating date in a single historical setting. The 
events in the traditional history of the Books of 
Chilam Balam, meager enough when taken alone, 
have the valuable quality of reaching back into the 
time of the First Empire when the use of dates on 
temples and monuments was much in vogue. They 
permit a richly documented past to be tied in, as 1t 
were, to a poorly documented terminal period. 

Before the matter of the ancient inscribed dates 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 105 


‘a 


RED 
:§ 


: 
; 

: 

‘ 

fs 

‘ 
oi 
a 
Lis 
’ 

eee ; 


Fig. 36. The Front Head of the Two-Headed Dragon on Stele 
at Piedras Negras showing the Increase in Flamboyant Treatment. 
The interval between (a) and (vb) is 125 years, that between (b) 
and (c) is 45 years. 


106 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


can be understood, however, the somewhat compli- 
cated mechanism of the Mayan calendar must be 
explained, as well as the system of hieroglyphs and 
the notation of numbers. Then there is the problem 
of correlation which necessitates delicate adjudica- 
tions of evidence. Finally we must take up the 
proofs which demonstrate the astronomical achieve- 
ments of the Mayas which, in reverse, provide 
checks upon the correctness of the day for day 
correlation itself. We must proceed slowly and 
carefully. without much following of by-ways, how- 
ever attractive they may appear. We will begin 
with stratigraphy and stylistic sequence. 


Sequences in Art. The study of Mayan ceramics 
reveals developments as regard shapes, fabries, and 
designs. Specimens recovered from sealed cysts 
under stele at Copan establish true associations 
with the higher forms of art and can be used far 
and wide in comparison with pottery finds in Sal- 
vador, Guatemala, ete. Vaillant has found strati- 
graphic sequences in a collection of funerary vessels 
obtained at Holmul, where graves occurred under 
the floors and within the filled-in chambers of a 
buried temple. 

As regards sculpture we find at Copan a remark- 
ably homogeneous series of stele on which a royal 
or priestly personage stands erect and in front view. 
A Ceremonial Bar is held symmetrically in the two 
arms and the body is partly covered with rich and 
elaborate ornament. The amount of relief, the pro- 
portions of the body, the forms of the Ceremonial 
Bar, ete., all pass through a harmonious develop- 
ment. The earliest monuments show a crude block- 
like carving of the face, with protruding eyes, while 
the latest monuments have fully rounded contours. 


Plate XXI. Development in Style of Carving at Copan. 
Peles coe tight: Stela 9 (9.10.10.0.0, 383 A. D.)3 Stela 5 
(9.13.15.0.0, 447 A. D.); Stela N (9.16.10.0.0, 502 A. D.); Stela 
H (9.17.12.0.0, 523 A. D.); Bottom: Details of architecture show- 
ing analogous development, 


107 


108 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


At Tikal the stele show, for the most part, human 
figures in profile, but unmistakable development can 
be seen in general quality of carving as well as in 
specific details. 

In making comparisons in art it is always neces- 
sary to consider similar things. At many other 
Mayan cities than the two named above it is possible 
to obtain satisfactory evidence of sequence in art 
forms by cutting out similar details from different 
masses. Thus at Naranjo, when 
we examine all the Ceremonial 
Bars, we find a remarkable devel- 
opment of flamboyant detail on 
the later monuments. At Qui- 
rigua the faces on the tops of the 
altars may be compared with the 
same result. At Piedras Negras 
the heads of the Two-headed 
Dragon that oc- 
cur in exactly 
similar posi- 
tions on four 
monuments 
likewise show a 
steady modifi- 
eation towards 
flamboyancy as 
may be seen 
from: Wig. 36, 
where the front 


Fig. 38. Jaguar in 
Dresden Codex with 


Fig. 37. Grotesque 
Face on the Back of heads are put 4 Water Lily at- 
Stela B, Copan. side by side. tached to Forehead. 


Still other 
lines of evidence on historical sequence are to be 
gained from a study of architecture. Not only is 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 109 


it possible to determine the general developments 
that hold true of the entire Mayan Area but also in 
a given city it is sometimes possible to arrange the 
buildings in their order of 
erection according to de- 
pendable criteria, both dec- 
orative and structural. 
The earliest temples have 
narrow vaulted rooms, 
heavy walls, and a single 
doorway. ‘The rooms in- 
erease in width, the walls 
decrease in thickness, the 
doorways multiply till the 
spaces between them be- 
come piers and finally col- 
umns. The support for the 
heavy roof comb taxed the 
structural ingenuity of the 
Mayan architects. The Fig. 39. Late Sculpture 
solving of this problem IS from Chichen Itza. The head- 
marked by successive ad- dress resembles that worn by 
vanees' and since mechani- _ the rulers on the highlands of 
eal science goes forward Mexico. 
rather than backward the 
relative order of structures is fairly certain. More- 
over, many buildings are closely associated with 
dated monuments, tablets, lintels, or stele. Still 
another evidence of architectural sequence is seen 
in structures that have been enlarged by the addi- 
tion of wings or by the enclosing of the old parts 
under new masonry. 


Books of Chilam Balam. We now turn to a very 
different kind of history, the digests of ancient 
chronicles in the Mayan language but in Spanish 


110 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


script which managed to survive in the so-called 
Books of Chilam Balam along with other texts, cere- 
monial and medical. There are five chronicles, the 
two longest covering 68 katuns before the coming of 
the Spaniards in 1517. We now know that these 
katuns were time units consisting of 7200 days, or 
nearly 20 years, and that they were designated by 
their final day which was always a day called Ahau 
associated with a number, 1 and 13, in a peculiar 
sequence. A katun with the same designation re- 
turns in 13 < 7200 days or about 256 years. Such 
a completion, counted especially from a Katun 8 
Ahau, was called the ‘‘doubling back of the katuns’’ 
or, as we would say, the completion of a cycle. The 
count of the katuns used in the chronicles was really 
part and parcel of a fuller count just as a year ’22 
implies a position in one of the centuries of our 
Christian era. 

The chronicles unfortunately give few names of 
chieftains and cities and few outstanding events. 
Chichen Itza is the city most fully concerned and 
an early occupation is recorded, then an abandon- 
ment for some two and a half centuries. After its 
re-establishment the Toltees enter Yucatan and 
capture this capital. The first part of the chroni- 
cles has the atmosphere of myth rather than history, 
but a calendarial adjustment of some kind is men- 
tioned in one place. This was an event which took 
place in 503 A. D. as we shall see in another place. 

The first rough correlation between the time count 
on the ancient monuments and the time count in the 
chronicles was made on the theory that a dated 
lintel at Chichen Itza had to be placed in the first 
occupation of the city: when this was done the be- 
ginning of the chronicles was found to proceed from 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 111 


an important round number in the old day count 
while the abandonment of Chichen Itza coincided 
with the abandonment of all the cities of the Mayan 
First Empire. We must now turn attention to the 
famous calendar. 


The Mayan Time Counts. The passage of time, 
seen in finer and finer degree in the course of human 
life, the succession ef summer and winter, the wax- 
ing and waning moons, the alternation of day and 
night, the upward and downward sloping of the sun, 
and the swinging dial of the stars, are phenomena 
that no human group has failed to notice. Longer 
periods than those included within the memory of 
the oldest men (presenting an imperfect reflection 
of the memory of men still older) are found only in 
those favored centers where a serviceable system of 
counting has been developed. Mythology has a con- 
tent of history but hardly of chronology. Tradi- 
tion, when organized by the priesthood, may be rea- 
sonably dependable for perhaps two hundred years. 

The year and the month are the basis of all primi- 
tive time systems, the former depending on the re- 
curring seasons, the latter on recurring moons. 
Both of these are expressedindays. Unfortunately, 
the day is not contained evenly in either the month 
or the year, nor do these larger time measures show 
any simple relation to each other as regards length. 
The history of the calendar is one of compromise 
and correction. 

The Mayan calendars were made possible by: 
first, the knowledge of astronomical time periods; 
second, the possession of a suitable notation system; 
third, the discovery of a permutation system of 
names and numbers. 


Lie MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Elements of the Day Count. There is reason to 
believe that the Mayas had first a lunar-solar eal- 
endar of twelve months of thirty days each, making 
a year of 360 days, and that they reduced the num- 
ber of days in the formal month to 20 and raised 
the number of months in the year from 12 to 18. 
These changes permitted a close adjustment of the 
units of time with their vigesimal system of count- 
ing. With a truer knowledge of the length of the 


190©8@@020e 
@060020008 


OG 8900898. 
@9O900@00® 


Canac.. 


Fig. 40. The Twenty Day Signs. The first example in each 
case is taken from the inscriptions and the second from the codices. 


year an extra five day month was added to make a 
year of 365 days. Beyond this the ‘‘leap year”’ 
error was calculated but not interpolated. As proof 
that the lunar month of thirty days preceded the 
formal month of twenty days, it need only be pointed 
out that the name for this period, winal, seems to be 
connected with the name for moon, wu, and that the 
hieroglyph for moon has the value, twenty, in the 
inscriptions and ancient books. 

Before entering into a fuller discussion of the 
astronomical and notational facts let us turn for 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 113 


a moment to the third fact, the permutation system. 
The origin of the cycle* known by the Mayan name 
tzolkin and the Aztecan name tonalamatl, book of 
the days, has never been satisfactorily explained. 
It is a permutation system with two factors, 13 and 
20. The former is a series of numbers (1-13) and 
the latter a series of twenty names as follows :— 


1. Imix 6. Cimi 11. Chuen 16. Cib 

ak 7. Manik 12. Eb 17, Caban 
3. Akbal 8. Lamat 13. Ben 18. Eznab 
4. Kan 9. Mulue 14. Ix 19. Cauae 
5. Chicchan 10. Oc 15. Men 20. Ahau 


These two series revolve upon each other like two 
wheels, one with thirteen and the other with twenty 
cogs. The smaller wheel of numbers makes twenty 
revolutions while the larger wheel of days is making 
thirteen revolutions, and after this the number cog 
and name cog with which the experiment began are 
again in combination. Thus, a day with the same 
number and the same name recurs every 13 X 20 or 
260 days. 

This 260 day cycle corresponds to no natural time 
period and is an invention pure and simple. It is 
the most fundamental feature of the Mayan time 
count and of the time counts of other nations in 
Mexico and Central America. We may perhaps 
assume that the twenty names were originally those 
of the twenty days in the modified lunar months. 
But the thirteen numbers have no recognized proto- 
type. The formal book of days generally was con- 


1The word cycle is applied in this book to re-entering series, or 
wheels, of days. These all contain the tzolkin or tonalamatl without 
a remainder. The word period is applied to fixed numbers that do 
not contain the tonalamatl. 


114 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


sidered to begin with 1 Imix for the Mayas and with 
a corresponding day for the other Mexican and 
Central American nations. But it can be made to 
begin anywhere and proceed to an equivalent station 
that is always 260 days removed. 


PERMUTATION TABLE 


1/2}3)4/5/6]7|81]9 |10j11)12/13) 1 


1 Imix.. qwetile....... 1] 8} 2} 9} 3}10) 4/11] 5}12} 6/13) 7] 1 

2 Lee ee AcGiich ROT TPN 2| 9} 3]10) 4/11) 5)12] 6)13] 7 2 

DA baled yee Pe 2 3/10) 4/11) 5/12) 6]13] 7| 1] 8 3 

4 Kan... A, SOM oe cs 4]11} 5)12} 6/13} 7} 1) 8] 2] 9 4 

5 Chicchen. @rewe®...... 5|12} 6/13] 7} 1) 8} 2} 9) 3)10 5 

6.<~Cim 5 OR oe io ce 6|13} 7} 1] 8] 2) 9} 3)10) 4/11 6 

Gaile 3 ee 7] 11 8} 2) 9} 310) 4/11) 5/12 Z 

8 Lamat.../¥ og ct 8] 2] 9} 3/10} 4/11) 5]12) 6/18 8 

9 Muluc....% hare ae eS 9} 3/10] 4/11] 5}12| 6/13) 7] 1 9 

TOG! Seer bc er Ona eS 10} 4)11] 5}12} 6}13] 7 1] 8} 2 3/10 
1: (Chuen.. eee 11) 5/12} 6}13] 7] 1] 8} 2) 9} 3)10) 4/11 
13.5 Bb oe ee ee 12} 6|13] 7} 1] 8} 2] &} 3]10) 4/11) 5/12 
18. Ben... 6 eee. 13) 7| 1] 8} 2] 9} 3]10} 4/11) 5)12] 6)13 
14 Te eee 1] 8} 2] 9} 3/10) 4)11) 5)12) 6)13 1 
15 Mens. 4 eee ae ee 2) 9} 3}10) 4)11] 5}12} 6/138] 7 2 
16 Cib......vreheure.... 3/10] 4/11] 5}12} 6]13) 7] 1) 8 3 
17 Gahan or ee ee Al11) 5]12] 6)13}] 7} 1] 8] 2| 9 4 
18 Eznab.... 4 Ce ree 5}12} 6/13] 7} 1] 8} 2} 9} 3)10 5 
19 Cauac....¢ A ceetin ae ee ee 6|13} 7] 1] 8} 2] 9} 3/10) 4)11 6 
rf 


20 Ahau.... Lewin 71 1) 8] 2] 9] 3i1o} 4|1I] 5112 


The Conventional Year. It has been stated that 
the Mayas arrived at a conventional 365 day year 
made up of eighteen months of twenty days each 
plus a short period of five days that fell after the 
eighteen regular months had been counted. The 
Mayan month names are as follows :— 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 115 


Pop 7. Yaxkin 13. Mae 

2. Uo 8. Mol 14. Kankin 
3. Zip 9. Chen 15. Muan 

4, Zotz LO ax tO tr x 

5. Tzee oleae 17. Kayab 
6. Xul 12. Ceh 18. Cumhu 


19. Uayeb (five additional days) 


Since there are twenty days or positions in the 
month and likewise twenty distinct day names in the 
tzolkin, falling in regular order, it follows that each 
day would always occupy the same month position 


em ee CG Zp, 

ila 
Zip Zotz, 

a OS Bf 

eB it 

rr 

ea cawaiil 


Kayab Uayeb 


Fig. 41. The Nineteen Month Signs of the Mayan Year. The 
first example in each case is taken from the inscriptions and the sec- 
ond from the codices. The last details are signs for zero. 


were it not for the offset at the end of each year 
caused by the short Uayeb period. As it is, any 
day name occupies the same month position during 
the course of an entire year and a position five days 
in advance during the course of the following year. 
Since five is contained four times in twenty there 
ean be only four shifts, the fifth year showing the 
same arrangement as the first. The following table 


Plate XXII. Scheme of the Mayan Calendar as presented in 
the Codex Tro-Cortesianus. In the center is Itzamna, the God of 
the Sky, and his spouse, under what has been ealled the celestial 
tree. The band of hieroglyphs that frames in this picture contains 
the twenty day signs of the Mayan month. The figures on the out- 
side are arranged in four groups, according to the four directions 
of the compass. At the top or east we again see Itzamna and his 
mate. In the north, or right hand quarter, human sacrifice is 
shown and the Death God sits opposite the God of War. In the 
east and in the south are also shown pairs of divinities. A series 
of dots running from one day sign to another covers the tzolkin 
or 260 day cycle of names and numbers. 


116 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION Ls: 


gives the month positions of each day name during’ 
the changes of four consecutive years as these are 
recorded in the ancient inscriptions. 


Tk Manik Eb Caban Oe SiO LS 
Akbal Lamat Ben Eznab 15 SA ve pte aN 
Kan Mulue 16 < Cauae TASS Weil Wakes Wd 
Chiecchan Oc Men Ahau Sieber owes ko 
Inte 23S Smit Ch. Chuen ©. Cib 4-95 14.519 


Thus Ik occupies 0 position the first year,/5, the 
second year, 10 the third, 15 the fourth, and 0 the 
fifth. While Manik that belongs to the same set 
has position 5 the first year, 10 the second, ete. It 
will be noted that Imix, the first day of the formal 
permutation of the tzolkin is never the first day of 
a month. 


The Calendar Round. But this assignment of 
particular day names to particular places in the 
month does not close the problem. Each day name 
is associated in the tzolkin, or permutation, with a 
day number. While it is true that each day can 
occupy only four month positions in as many years, 
it must be remembered that the day numbers asso- 
ciated with these names can run the whole gamut of 
13 changes. Thus, although Ik must always occupy 
the fifth position in the months during a certain 
year, nevertheless it will have numbers which fall 
in the sequence 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 1, 
ete. The complete cycle of variations must run 
through the least common multiple of 260 (the per- 
mutation) and 365 (the conventional year) or 18,980 
days. This cycle is commonly known as the Cal- 
endar Round. A Mayan day fixed in a month, or 
let us say a calendar round date, has four parts to 
its name, thus, 11 Ahau 18 Mac. We describe a 


118 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


day as Tuesday, July 4, meaning ‘‘ Tuesday the third 
day of the seven day week occupies the fourth posi- 
tion in the month of July.’’ Similarly the Mayan 
date 11 Ahau 18 Mac may be read ‘‘the day named 
Ahau as eleventh day in a thirteen day week occu- 
pies the eighteenth position in the month Mac.’’ 
Owing to leap year corrections the European date 
given above does not recur at regular intervals, but 
a Mayan day recurs infallibly in 52 calendar years, 
never sooner, never later. 

So far we have considered two kinds of Mayan 
dates, first the teolkin date, recurring every 260 
days, secondly the calendar round date recurring 
every 18,980 days. Before we can understand a 
third and much more important kind of date, namely 
a date which states, in addition to the calendar 
round designation, the total number of days since a 
beginning day called 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, located far 
in the past, we must direct our attention to the 
matter of numbers and notation. 


Mayan Numbers. The three most common nu- 
merical systems in use in the world are all derived 
from man’s anatomy. The quinary system is based 
on counting the fingers of one hand, the decimal 
system on counting those of both hands and the 
vigesimal system, which prevailed in Central Amer- 
ica, is based on counting all the fingers and all the 
toes. The vigesimal system is seen in imperfect 
form in our count of scores, where seventy years are 
three score and ten. 

The Mayan name for one was hun: they had sim- 
ple names to 9 and composite ones from: 10 71ome, 
much as in English, and twenty was hun kal, one 
score. The ascending values in the vigesimal scale 
were as follows :— 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 119 


Mayan Numbers Arabie Equivalents 

hun " 
unin. == 1 kal 20 
20 kal il. bak 400 
ZOepak.” ==1 pic 8,000 
20 pie pi hacd Dal 160,000 
20 cabal =1 kinchil 3,200,000 
20 kinchil—=1 alau 64,000,000 
2iealan “== 1 hablat 1,280,000,000 


They invented signs for zero and discovered the 
principle of ‘‘local value’’ in the writing down of 
numbers centuries before these ideas (which are 


@@6 
e os e 0066 acne ———! 
of z oF C G lO LE 


Fig. 42. Bar and Dot Numerals of the Mayas. 


fundamental to higher mathematics) were known in 
the Old World. The notation of numbers had its 
simpler and more complicated phase. In the sim- 
pler phase 1 was represented by a dot, 2 by two dots, 
. by a bar, 6 by a bar and dot, 15 by three bars, ete. 
The commonest sign for zero was a shell while a 
picture of the moon stood for twenty. In the more 
elaborate notation a series of twenty faces of gods 
represented the numerals from 0 to 19. 

The straight vigesimal system was doubtless used 
by the Mayas in ordinary counting, but in counting 
time a very important change was introduced in the 
third position. Also the names were modified: hun 
was called kin which means sun or day. In the 
second position kal was called wimnal which means 
month and 18 of these were taken to form a tun, 
stone, which was the third unit. The tun then hada 
value of 18 « 20 = 360 days, making a conventional 
year about five and a quarter days less than a true 


120 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


year. Twenty tuns made a kaltun or katun and 
above this period the numeral system proceeded as 
before and in the ascending values the names al- 
ready given were merely combined with tun, if 
Gates is right in his clever suggestion. For years 
it has been customary to speak of the fifth period 
as cycle for want of a native term: this will 
now be called baktun. One hablatun, the highest 
period with a name, has the astonishing value of 
460,800,000,000 days. However, the highest num- 
bers fall considerably short of this potential limit. 

In our decimal system the number 347,981, for 
instance, is really: | 


3 >< 100000 
4>¢ 10000 
7 < 1000 
95¢ 100 
BAC ele 
1x 1 


When written out in a horizontal line each ‘‘posi- 
tion’? has a value ten times that of the ‘‘position”’ 
to the right of it. It is understood that a digit 
which stands in a ‘‘position’’ is to be multiplied by 
1, 10, 100, 1000, etce., as the case may be. The 
Mayas, using the principle of position, ordinarily 
write their bar and dot numerals in columns. But 
we can partially transcribe a Mayan number in 
‘mitation of our own system by putting dots or 
dashes between the positions or periods. The num- 
ber in five positions given below 1s transcribed as 
9.12.16.7.8. 


vit 9 >¢ 144000 1,296,000 
he 125¢ 7200 86,400 

ae 16s 360 5,760 
LT T3672 20 140 
oom 8 yZ 1 : 


1,388,308 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 11 


We read this date: 9 baktuns, 12 katuns, 16 tuns, 7 
uinals, and 8 kins. It is convenient to remember 
that a tun is a little less than a year, a katun a little 


Fig. 48. Face Numerals found in Mayan Inscriptions. In most 
eases these are the faces of gods. Reading from left to right: the 
values are 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10. 


less than 20 years and a baktun a little less than 
400 years. But the count is really of days, not 
years. tics a 


Fig. 44. The Normal Forms of the Period Glyphs. Reading 
from left to right: baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin. 


Although the numerical values are expressed by 
position alone in some cases, in other cases use is 
made of Period Glyphs to make assurance doubly 


Fig. 45. Face Forms of Period Glyphs. From left to right: 
introducing glyph, baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin. 


sure. These Period Glyphs represent the basic 
value of the positions which are to be multiplied by 
the accompanying numerals. For examples, see 
Figs. 44 and 45. 


Introducing Glyph 


Initial Series 
. 9 baktuns (cycles). 
. 14 katuns 
. 13 tuns (written 12 by error) 
. 4 uinals 
. 17 kins 
. 12 Caban (day) 


ao oP FH DD Ht 


Supplementary Series 
. glyph F 
- (a) glyph D, (b) glyph C 
. (a) glyph X, (b) glyph B 
. (a) glyph A (30 day lunar month) 
. (b) 5 Kayab (month) 


a 
oS Soo 3 


Explanatory Series : 
11, 12, 13 and 14a, possibly explain the dates 


Secondary Series 
14b, 3 kins, 13 uinals 
15a, 6 tuns (to be added) 


Period Ending Date 
16. 4 Ahau 13 Yax (9.15.0.0.0) 


Plate XXIII. Typical Mayan Inscription. 


122 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 123 


The Long Count. Many early monuments of the 
Mayas have inscriptions with an enlarged Introduc- 
ing Glyph containing a variable element indicating 
the title or principal subject matter of the inscrip- 
tion. Next follows the number of elapsed days 
from the epoch of a Mundane Era. This starting 
point is uniformly the day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and the 
complete Initial Series date not only states the num- 
ber of elapsed days, but also the name and number 
of the day reached and its position in a Mayan 
month. 

The Initial Series is normally followed by a Sup- 
plementary Series which concerns the lunar calen- 
dar, and often there are numbers of days to be 
added to or subtracted from the Initial Series date: 
these are called Secondary Series. Also Period 
Ending dates are used, these being merely abbrevi- 
ated dates which correspond to indicated round 
numbers in the day count. 

The Initial Series analyzed in Plate XXIII ac- 
tually records the number 1,401,217. This number 
does not, however, reach the day 12 Caban declared 
immediately after it or the month position 5 Kayab 
recorded in glyph 10b. When 13 tuns are corrected 
to 12 tuns on the theory that the sculptor did not 
follow copy, we do reach 12 Caban 5 Kayab. An- 
other check comes when we add the Secondary 
Series of 2423 days and reach 4 Ahau 13 Yax end- 
ing an even katun. 


Dates of Dedication. Initial Series dates are 
especially common on stele at cities of the First 
Empire, mostly located in the southern part of the 
Mayan Area. While it is impossible to read much 
of the texts which accompany these dates neverthe- 


124 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


less it ig a remarkable fact that when we arrange the 
monuments in their artistic order we find that the 
inscribed dates in the great majority of cases fall in 
the same order. This leads us to conclude that the 
dates are practically contemporaneous with the 
carving and setting up of the monuments. Now the 
above is especially true when the inscription gives 
a simple Initial Series date. When more than one 
date is given the historic one appears in most in- 
stances to be the latest, but in a few instances it ap- 
pears to be a specially emphasized intermediate 
date. In addition, then, to contemporaneous dates 
there are some that refer to the past and others that 
refer to the future. 

Some writers have assumed that the stele and 
other inscribed monuments were primarily time 
markers set up at the end of hotun (or five year) 
periods. This seems an unnecessarily narrow view. 
We can demonstrate that some inscriptions deal 
with astronomical facts covering long stretches of 
time. It is also apparent that many of the sculp- 
tures represent conquests and it is extremely likely 
that portraits of actual rulers are to be seen in 
certain carvings. It would be too much to expect 
events to happen regularly at the end of time pe- 
riods and as a matter of fact we find at different 
cities repeated dates that do not occupy such posi- 
tions. These repeated dates would seem to recall 
events of special importance to the city in question. 

The running co-ordination between the apparent 
order of the artistic styles and inscribed dates per- 
mits us to measure very accurately the rate of 
change in art which was rapid, indeed, at certain 
times. The style of carving, on the other hand, 
enables us to put into definite 52 year periods many 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 125 


of the calendar round dates—if these are to be re- 
garded as contemporaneous. The result is that for 
the First Empire, as it has been called, there is an 
exceedingly accurate chronology. After the fall 
and abandonment of the great southern cities dates 
are rare and we have to fall back upon remnants of 
history preserved after the coming of the Spaniards. 


Hieroglyphs. Mayan hieroglyphs resemble the 
Kgyptian and Chinese hieroglyphs only in being 
‘*sacred writing’’ that is not based upon an alpha- 
bet. The styles and symbols are entirely different. 
No Rosetta Stone has yet been discovered to give 
us inscriptions in more than one system of writing 
in Central America. The great use of hieroglyphic 
inscriptions on monuments was characteristic of the 
earlier period of Mayan history and at a later time 
the writing was reduced to books. Bishop Landa 
obtained what he supposed was a Mayan alphabet, 
but what he really obtained was a list of signs repre- 
senting among other sounds the particular sounds 
he had asked for. 

The phonetic use of syllables rather than of sim- 
ple sounds or letters is probably an important fea- 
ture of Mayan writing. Many hieroglyphs are pic- 
tographic and consist of abbreviated pictures of the 
thing intended or of some object connected with it. 
Often a head stands for the entire body. The fol- 
lowing list practically exhausts our knowledge of 
Mayan hieroglyphs :— 


1. The signs for the twenty named days of the 
calendar. 

2. The signs for the nineteen months of the 
Mayan year. 


126 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


3. The face signs for numbers from zero to nine- 
teen inclusive. 

4. Period glyphs in two styles for place values in 
the numerical notation. 

5. The symbols for the four directions and for 
the colors associated with them. 

6. The hieroglyphs of several gods and cere- 
monies. 

7. The symbols of Heaven and Earth, the Sun, 
Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and a few astronomi- 
cal phenomena such as conjunctions. 

8. Hieroglyphs for special times of the year such 
as solstices and equinoxes. 

9. Signs meaning era, or base from which a nu- 
merical count is made, completion, ete. 


Some of these have recently been solved, thanks 
to mathematical and astronomical calculations, oth- 
ers rest on the calendarial forms given by Landa. 
There are some phonetic elements in Mayan writ- 
ing and some ideographic elements. It seems likely 
that the gist of the Mayan inscriptions which deal 
with history will be solved in somewhat the same 
fashion as those that deal with astronomy. The 
matter is, however, most perplexing. So far not 
a single place name or personal name has been 
definitely recognized and translated. In spite of 
the hundreds of glyphs recovered at the sites called 
Copan and Palenque, for instance, we do not know 
the real names of these cities or even their symbols. 
We may expect to find signs referring to tribute 
and common objects of trade and others referring 
to birth, death, establishment, conquest, destruction, 
and other fundamentals of individual and social 
existence. These signs, taken with directives, con- 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION bey. 


nectives, and dates, would make possible the re- 
covery of the main facts of history. There seems 
no possibility of purely literary inscriptions. 
While progress necessarily will be slow there is 
no reason for despair and without doubt the greater 


Fig. 46. Hieroglyphs of the Four Directions: East, North, 
West, South. 


portion of Mayan inscriptions will finally be de- 
ciphered. 

As an example of the phonetic use of signs in the 
building up of hieroglyphs let us take the common 
sign kin, meaning ‘‘sun.’’ This sign appears regu- 
larly in the glyphs for the world directions east and 
west, the Mayan names being likin and chikin, and 
also in the month sign Yaxkin, and sometimes in 
that for Kankin. It also appears as the sign for 
the lowest period in the time count having the value 


LP 8B e 
a b c d e f g 


Fig. 47. Hieroglyphs containing the Phonetic Element kin: 
a—b, kin; c, li-kin; d, chi-kin; e-f, yax-kin; g, kan-kin, 


of a single day and called kin (Fig. 47). Now this 
kin sign also appears in many undeciphered hiero- 
elyphs and in some of these it seems likely that it 
has a phonetic value. Other signs with definite 
values in several glyphs are yaw, tun, zac, ete. This 
general method of writing is seen in more decipher- 


128 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


able form among the Aztecs. The glosses of the 
early priests that have proved so great a help in 
the ease of the Aztecan writing are absent from the 
few Mayan documents. 

Codices. Only three ancient Mayan books or 
codices are known to exist and these are more or 
less incomplete. They have all been reproduced 
in facsimile and are known by the following names: 
Dresden Codex, Peresianus Codex, Tro-Cortesianus 
Codex. 

These illuminated manuscripts are written on 
both sides of long strips of amatl paper, folded like 
Japanese screens. The paper was siven a smooth 
surface by a coating of fine lime and the drawings 
were made in black and in various colors. From 
the early accounts we know that books were also 
written on prepared deerskin and upon bark. Con- 
cerning their subject matter we are told that the 
Mayas had many books upon civil and religious 
history, and upon rites, magic, and medicine. The 
three books named above have been carefully stud- 
ied. They treat principally of the calendar and of 
associated religious ceremonies. 

A page of the Dresden Codex containing some in- 
teresting calculations is reproduced herewith. The 
numbers with the digits one above the other are 
transcribed in two diagrams. In the upper diagram 
the bar and dot numerals are simply put over into 
Arabic numerals and the Mayan system of periods 
or positions is retained. In the lower diagram 
these numbers are reduced entirely to the Arabic 
system. The columns are lettered at the top, the 
hieroglyphs are counted off in sixteen rows at the 
left and the separate groupings of numbers are 
shown in five sections at the right. 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 129 


Among the hieroglyphs the Venus sign is espe- 
cially prominent. At the base of column B is given 
a number in five periods that, counted from the 
normal beginning day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu leads again 
to this day which is recorded at the bottom of col- 
umn A. The long number in column C, similarly 
counted from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, leads to 1 Ahau 18 
Kayab, recorded at the bottom of B. The day 1 
Ahau 18 Uo is reached by another calculation which 
will be explained later. At the base of A is a 
number in three periods which amounts to 2200. 
Not only is this the difference between the long 
numbers in B and C (1,366,560 — 1,364,360 = 2200) 
but it is also the number of days by which 1 Ahau 
18 Kayab precedes 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. In other 
words we deal in this passage with the end of the 
seventy-second calendar round after the original 
4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and with a new point of departure 
2200 days earlier, which is some way involved with 
the calendar of Venus. 

Let us now make a new beginning in the lower 
left hand corner of this page. In GO we find the 
number 2920 which as we have already seen is ex- 
actly the number of days consumed in eight years of 
365 days or five synodic revolutions of Venus of 584 
days. We will now see how the Mayan scholars 
arrived at 13 x 2920 or 37,960, the calendar round 
of Venus. If we proceed towards the left in section 
5 we find the second number, F5, is 5840 which 
equals 2 < 2920, the third is 8760 or 3 X 2920, and 
the fourth is 11,680 or 4 « 2920. The addition is 
continued in sections 4 and 3 till we reach 35,040 
or 12 « 2920. To be sure the scribe made a slight 
error in one place, writing a 5 for an 8 but this is 
caught up by the day signs 9 Ahau, 4 Ahau, 7 Ahau, 


oo 
hei 


~ ~ 
“ 


~. 
he 
# G > : ‘ x 3 : 5 : 4 ¥ 


aed 
a 


Plate XXIV. Page 24 Dresden Codex. 
130 


ee 
') 
Cc 
Poowua 
® 
c 
+> 


—_ 
AGO = 


9 

11 

Hieroglyphs 7. 
O 

1 Ahau 

4 
9 
4 
O 
2 
6 


= 


@ > 
Fooww Ce 
c 


© 
Cc 


» 
Cc 


11 Ahau 


13 
; 2 
14 1 8 
' 14 12 
16 ; 13 Ahau 5 Ahau 10 Ahau 
1 
4 16 
6 4 5 
O Oo 
12 Ahau 4 Ahau 9 


Diagram showing partial reduction of Mayan numbers into Arabic 
numbers in the calculation shown on page 24 of the Dresden Codex 
(Plate XXIV). 


©) 
awlPooialZon 


» 
Cc 


st 


oo 
OOON 
Rh 


A B C- D E 


F 
151,840 113,880 75,920 
1 Ahau 1 Ahau 1 Ahau 
: 185,120 68,900 33,280 
Hieroglyphs 
1 Ahau 1 Ahau 1 Ahau 
35,040 32,120 29,200 
3 
6 Ahau 11 Ahau 3 Ahau 
23,360 20,440 | 17,520 14,600 ¥ 
13 Ahau 5 Ahau 10 Ahau 2 Ahau 
8,760 . 5,840 2,920 
12 Ahau 4 Ahau 9 Ahau 


Diagram showing complete reduction into Arabic numbers of the 
calculation shown on page 24 of the Dresden Codex (Plate XXIV). 


131 


132 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


12 Ahau, ete., that fall at regular intervals of 2920 
days. 

From section 3, the calculation jumps to section 
1 where the numbers in the original are partly de- 
stroyed. They have, however, been restored with 
perfect assurance since the days in all instances are 
1 Ahau and therefore must be separated by multi- 
ples of 260 days. The number in G1 has been 
restored as 5-5-8-0 or 37,960 or 13 x 2920. It con- 
tains 260 an even number of times and therefore 
every successive period of 37,960 days begins with 


¢ 


B Ss 


i i wR 


i 
° Cae 


) \ 


: 1g 


= et = Ss Lu 
I LLLLZZ EL LL LMA 


Fig. 48. Mayan Ceremony as represented in the 
Dresden Codex. The figure at the left beats a drum 
while the one on the right plays a flageolet. The sound 
is indicated by scrolls. The head on the pyramid is that 
of the Maize God and it rests upon the sign caban, mean- 
ing earth. 


the same day, 1 Ahau. It also equals 15 X 8 X 365 
days or 104 years and 13 X 9 X 584 days or sixty- 
five revolutions of Venus. 

The three numbers to the left in F1, H1, and D1 
are respectively 2, 3, and 4 times 37,960. The last 
number, 151,840 days is therefore equal to 416 years 
or exactly 8 calendar rounds of 18,980 days. 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 133 


The numbers in section 2 are more difficult to 
explain but they possibly have to do with correc- 
tions and correlations of astronomical periods. If 
we add to 1 Ahau 18 Kayab the number of days in 
Hi2, (68900), we arrive at a day 1 Ahau 13 Mace. 
This day is prominent in more detailed calculations 
elsewhere in the Dresden Codex. If we add to the 
same 1 Ahau 18 Kayab the number in D2 we arrive 
at 1 Ahau 18 Uo recorded at the bottom of C. 
Space permits no further explanation but the reader 
will see from the foregoing the method of experi- 
ment and cross checking that must be applied to the 
déeipherment of the Mayan manuscripts. Fortu- 
nately, the relationships of numbers are absolute 
and the coincidences between the recorded numbers 
and astronomical periods are too close and frequent 
to be dismissed as accidental. 

In addition to rational calculations dealing with 
astronomy one sees in the Mayan manuscripts many 
arrangements of the tzolkin supposed to bring to 
fight good and bad days and to forecast events. A 
section of the Dresden Codex showing a condensed 
tzolkin is presented along with a diagram of its 
parts. At the top and right are seventeen hiero- 
elyphs containing the symbols of the four direc- 
tions, and of at least three of the principal gods. 
At the right is a column of five day signs with the 
number 3 at the head of the column. The permuta- 
tion is divided into five parts of fifty-two days each 
and each part is subdivided into four groups of 
three days each. It begins with 3 Akbal, the day 
sien at the top of the column, and after the four 
subdivisions of thirteen days each have been 
counted we arrive at the day 3 Men, the second day 
sign in the column. The count is repeated till the 


God B—rain and sky | Goddess with serpent’ God K— benevolent 
god of good powers. headdress possibly con- |sun god, If space had 
Holds Kan (maize) | nected with floods, been larger God E (the 
sign in his hand, Holds Kan sign in hand, | maize god) would prob- 
ably have been drawn 

next. 


Plate XXV. (a) Detail of the Dresden Codex showing 
Tzolkin used in Divination; (b) Analysis of the above Tzolkin, 
according to Forstemann. 


134 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 135 


260 days have been exhausted and we come back 
again to 3 Akbal. In the diagram the red numbers 
of the codex are represented by Roman numerals 
and the black numbers by Arabic numerals. Since 
the count in this example begins with 3 and the 
addition is always 13, or exactly one round of num- 
bers, the resultant days always have the number 3. 

The three pictures of gods give us an inkling into 
the significance of this particular table of chances. 
All of the gods carry the kan or maize sign in their 
hands. The first god is the benevolent rain god and 
the third is the benevolent sun god. Between them 
is seated the malevolent goddess of floods with a 
serpent on her head. The maize god is not shown 
but his hieroglyph is given. This tzolkin probably 
deals with agriculture and may be an attempt to 
determine lucky days for planting. 


Correlation with Christian Chronology. The day 
for day correlation rests broadly on the placing of 
the date on the Lintel of the Initial Series at 
Chichen Itza in the first occupation of that city 
according to the chronicles. More specifically it 
rests upon statements in Mayan and Spanish docu- 
ments relating to the completion of tuns and katuns 
in the never-languishing day count. Also consid- 
eration must be given the so-called Year-Bearers, 
these being the first days of current years which 
furnish the designations for such years. Bishop 
Landa has a specimen Mayan year with its equiva- 
lent days in the Spanish calendar; this is the year 
12 Kan corresponding to 1553-1554 A. D. and the 
day 12 Kan is found in the Long Count position 
ta.o4 12 Kan 2 Pop, July 26, 1553, Gregorian 
Calendar. 


136 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


The Mayan Eras. The zero of the Mayan day 
count, reached by subtracting 12.9.17.9.4 07 Tyigee 
104 days from the position declared above, is shown 
to be October 14, 3373 B. C. in the backward projec- 
tion of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian 
readings are preferable to the Julian because they 
preserve the actual times in the tropical year, but 
‘+t ig sometimes useful to use the days of the Julian 
Period which can always be found by adding 489384 
to the Mayan number. 

Now Mayan history does not reach back to the 
zero date which must be regarded as a theoretical 
beginning or Mundane Era. The earliest object 
with a contemporary date is the Tuxtla Statuette 
with May 16, 98 B. C. It appears, however, that 
the really historic beginning of the day count was 
7.0.0.0.0, 10 Ahau 18 Zac, August 6, 613 B. C. The 
calendar of months was probably inaugurated in 
580 B. CG. when 0 Pop, New Year’s day, coincided 
with the winter solstice. A third era, 9.0.0.0.0, 8 
Ahau 13 Ceh, February 10, 176 A. D., is the one 
used in the Mayan chronicles. 


Astronomical Checks on the Correlation. The 
first astronomical checks which develop from the 
correlation explained above are dates which reach 
the equinoxes, solstices, ete., further marked by 
special hieroglyphs which are to be explained as 
ideographs of these stations in the natural year. 
For instance the most emphatic date in the three 
famous temples of the Sun, the Cross, and the Foli- 
ated Cross at Palenque is one written 9.12.18.5.16, 
2 Cib 14 Mol, September 23, 430 A. D., which coin- 
cides with the autumnal equinox. In connection 
with this repeated date we find two glyphs both of 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION TE 


which are admirable ideographs of the equinox. 
One is Ahau, a face explained as that of the Lord 
of Day, but here half covered with starry eyes, and 
the other is the Kin or sun symbol, half darkened 
with cross-hatching. At Comitan a round number 
date exactly coinciding with the equinox has a vari- 
ant of this second ideograph. 

Other strong proofs concern Venus and the Moon. 
Hieroglyphs of these heavenly bodies are found in 
combination with dates and these later actually 
reach significant phases of the planets in question. 
For Venus the phase chosen is commonly the first 
appearance as Morningstar four days after inferior 
conjunction, or what is known as the heliacal rising. 
Records of the Moon are prominent when a new or 
full phase coincides with a round number in the 
day count. 


Astronomical Observatories. One of the most in- 
teresting pieces of evidence in support of the corre- 
lation explained above has to do with a giant sun 
dial at Copan. Two stele stand on opposite sides 
of the valley establishing a line which runs about 
9 degrees north of west. When observation is made 
from the eastern marker the sun sets behind the 
western stone two times during the course of a year, 
once shortly after the vernal equinox and once 
shortly before the autumnal equinox. Now the 
Mayan chronicles state that the calendarial New 
Year was ‘‘counted in order’’ during a certain Ka- 
tun 13 Ahau which extended from 491 A. D. to 511 
A. D. Altar U at Copan was observed to record 
two New Year’s dates equaling April 9 in conjunc- 
tion with another date, equaling September 2, 503 
A. D., and falling in the required interval covered 


138 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


by Katun 13 Ahau. These dates were such as 


might be reached by just such a base line as exists 


at Copan and it was first believed that they were 


exactly reached by it. Careful reconsideration of 


My 
Ly. yy Mn, 
My 


My 


Poin, 
s 


pie 


~ 


il a a 


Pig. 49. 
giving readings at April 9 and September 2. 
made in this line: at an early time it was arranged to read 


April 5 and September 6 and at a later time April 12 and 


Diagram of the Astronomical Base Line at Copan 
Slight shifts were 


August 30. 


the evidence in the inscriptions and a re-survey of 
the line of sight led to the interesting conclusion 
that the sun dial of Copan was originally set up in 
392 A. D. to give sunset coincidences on April 5 and 
September 6. About 490 A. D. the stones were re- 
adjusted to give the April 9 and September 2 which 
are recorded on Altar U and still later a third and 
present arrangement was effected giving April 12 
and August 30. Hach pair of dates is ‘‘reciprocal’”’ 
in the sense that one member marks the same inter- 
val after the Spring equinox that the other does 
before the Fall equinox. The shifting seems to 
have been decided upon by astronomical congresses, 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 139 


and the purpose was to fix propitious times of plant- 
ing the crops. 

Other Mayan observatories at Uaxactun and 
Chichen Itza have lines of sight which mark exactly 
the positions of the sun (the summer solstice, etc.), 
and all in all the evidence deduced from these ob- 
servatories is in complete agreement with the corre- 
lation of the Mayan and Christian time counts orig- 
inally effected on the evidence in sixteenth century 
documents. 


The True Year. The base line at Copan yielded 
accurate data on the exact leneth of the tropical 
year, a period varying by a difficult fraction from 
365 full days. The tropical year is the time meas- 
ured by the revolution of the earth around the sun 
and by the recurring seasons. No agricultural peo- 
ple could neglect this natural time period with its 
obvious relation to planting and harvest. 

Reference has already been made to the nota- 
tional 360 day year (tun) of the Mayas and to their 
formal calendar year (haab) of exactly 365 days. 
The calendar year kept running ahead of the true 
year by the accumulating amount of the days which 
we intercalate on leap years but the Mayas wisely 
made no such intercalations since to have done so 
would have thrown their day count out of gear with 
the moon and other planets and the somewhat de- 
fective calendar based upon these minor heavenly 
bodies. Therefore the months of the Mayan year 
like those of the ancient Egyptian year slowly 
moved through the seasons. But the Mayas calcu- 
lated an almost exact correction for the excess of 
the true year over the vague 365 day year. This 
excess amounts to about .24 of a day and their cor- 


140 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA — 


rection seems to have been one day in four years 
for short periods while for long periods they made 
29 calendar rounds (1508 calendar years or 550,420 
days) equal 1507 tropical years. This is a remark- 
ably accurate adjustment, much closer, in fact, than 
that of our present Gregorian calendar. This great 
cycle is comparable to the 1460 year Sothic cycle of 
the Egyptians in so far as that relates to the flood- 
ing of the Nile, but the Egyptian arrangement has 
an error of about twelve days for the cycle while 
the Mayan arrangement is accurate to a very small 
fraction of a day. 

In the calendars of various Guatemalan and Mex- 
ican tribes the slow shifting of the months is at- 
tested by actual statements of early Spanish writ- 
ers. But the conventional 365 day year was, after 
all, sufficiently accurate for most purposes since 
associations between the months and the seasons 
would hold reasonably true for the average lifetime. 


The Lunar Calendar. The apparent revolution 
of the moon around the earth was taken by the 
Mayas as the basis of a lunar calendar distinct from 
the civil calendar, but used in combination with it 
for various ceremonial purposes. Now the average 
duration of a lunar revolution is 29 days, 12 hours, 
44 minutes, 2.87 seconds. Twelve lunations amount 
to a little more than 354 days and are therefore 
far short of a true year. Primitive peoples whose 
principal interest is to keep the moon in adjustment 
with the seasons have an occasional thirteenth 
month in their luni-solar calendars. 

The Metoniec cycle of the Greeks, an equation of 
19 tropical years, 235 lunations and 6940 days, has 
been regarded as a remarkable achievement in ob- 


7 Fora 
oe 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 141 


servation. The Mayas discovered the same equa- 
tion and with their system of designating days were 
able to use it with much greater ease than the 
Greeks since one katun minus one tzolkin gives ex- 
actly the required number of days :— 


ie. 0.0 — 7200 days 
13.0 = 260 days 
19. 5.0 = 6940 days 


This interval is used prominently in several ealcula- 
tions at Copan and Quirigua. 

On pages 51 to 58 of the Dresden Codex is found 
a remarkable lunar calendar covering 405 lunations 
or nearly 33 years. The lunar revolutions are ar- 
ranged in groups of five or six, the former caleu- 
lated at 148 days and the latter at 177 or 178 days. 
These are the necessary intervals between eclipses. 
The total amounts to 11,960 days which exactly con- 
tains the tzolkin and therefore forms acycle. Itisa 
remarkable fact that 405 lunar revolutions amount, 
according to modern calculations, to 11,959.888 or 
only 0.112 of a day less than the Mayan lunar ecal- 
endar. Therefore this re-entering series can be 
used nine times, or nearly 300 years, before an 
error amounting to one whole day has accumulated. 
There is also evidence that the Mayas used the 
great cycle of 29 x 52 calendar years, or 1507 tropi- 
eal years, in connection with the moon and here the 
error for 18,639 lunations is about .64 of a day. 

The Supplementary Series in Long Count dates 
is probably to be interpreted as the statement of 
the day reached by the Initial Series in a lunar cal- 
endar with an accumulated error; that is, the Mayas 
had an uncorrected lunar count as well as an un- 
corrected calendar year. Glyph C records a num- 


142 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


ber of complete lunations which is never in excess 
of six; Glyph D gives the number of days in the 
current lunation when these are 19 or less and Glyph 
B, which has the basic value of 20, finishes the count 


Fig. 50. Representations of the Moon: a, sun and moon hiero- 
glyphs; b, moon from a ‘‘celestial band’’; ¢, moon hieroglyph 
used for 20 in codices. 


of a current lunation. There is some evidence that 
the Mayan lunar calendar in the fifth century A. D. 
had receded about four days from the true positions 
of the moon, the count being made from the new or 
conjunctional phase. When, however, a new or full 


Fig. 51. The Last Glyph of the Supplementary Series: a, 
moon glyph; combined with the numeral 9 or 10 to indicate a 
29 or a 30 day lunar month. 


phase actually coincided with an important round 
number in the day count special record of the fact 
was made. 

The lunar table in the Dresden Codex does not 
apply precisely to records of the First Empire but 
possibly may be adjusted to the times of the Second 
Empire. The indications are, however, too compli- 
cated to be examined in detail. 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 143 


Venus Calendar. Mayan astronomers reached a 
remarkable knowledge of the movements of the 
planet Venus and evolved a Venus calendar based 
essentially on the correspondence between 8 calen- 
dar years of 365 days each and 5 apparent or synod- 
ical revolutions of Venus of 584 days each. Venus 
whirling on an inside orbit actually makes thirteen 
revolutions around the sun in very nearly the same 
time that the earth makes eight revolutions and 
therefore passes between the earth and the sun five 
times (the difference between 13 and 8) during the 
course of this astronomical period of 2920 days. 
Just before inferior conjunction the planet disap- 
pears as evening star and a few days later emerges 
as morning star. The mean length of the synodical 
revolution of Venus is 582.92 days and the actual 
. length may vary about four days from this mean. 
While the Mayas standardized the Earth year at 
365 days and the Venus year at 584 days, they were 
fully aware of the amount of error in each case, and 
made proper correction for it without resorting to 
the devices of intercalation or excision. 

We have seen that the Mayas manipulated the 
year and the lunation in combination with the 
tzolkin or permutation of 20 days and 13 numbers. 
They also found a round of these elements in com- 
bination with the phases of Venus. Since the pe- 
riod of 2920 days is divisible by 20 but not by 13 
it had to be taken 13 times before the round of the 
Venus calendar was reached. 

In the Dresden Codex five pages are devoted to 
this round of the Venus calendar. Each Venus 
year of 584 days is divided into four parts of 236 
days for the phase of morning star, 90 days (supe- 
rior conjunction), 250 days (evening star) and 8 


144 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


days (inferior conjunction). These divisions agree 
closely enough with actual appearance. But we 
must remember that the observations were made 
without instruments and that the planet cannot be 
seen by the naked eye when close to the sun. More- 
over we must expect beliefs as to the nature of this 
planet, personified as a god, to supplement the 
knowledge gained from actual observations. The 
obscuration of Venus at inferior conjunction seems 
to have been greatly dreaded especially when a 
round number in the day count fell within the eight 
days of its duration. A grotesque two-headed 
monster apparently ruled this fatal period: on the 
front head is seen the symbol of Venus and on the 
rear head the symbol of the sun, both associated 
with elements of death. 

The Venus calendar seems to have taken form in 
the sixth century B. C. on the basis of heliacal ris- 
ings of the planet as morning star in sets of five 
making an eight year cycle. The dates in the 
Mayan calendar especially emphasized in connection 
with Venus are 19 Xul, 18 Kayab, 12 Yax, 6 Zip, 
and 5 Kankin standing exactly 584 days apart, 
while the corresponding dates in the Gregorian cal- 
endar are April 12, November 17, June 24, January 
99, and September 5. When these sets of dates, 
one in a fixed and the other in a vague calendar are 
carried back to a common focus they are found to 
correspond very closely with the proper astronom- 
ical phase of Venus. The maximum difference of 
the true positions of Venus from the positions in 
the Venus calendar is then only two days, plus or 
minus. 

The coincidences of the 8 day period of obscura- 
tion of Venus at inferior conjunction with the fol- 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 145 


lowing round numbers in the day count was memori- 

alized by important monuments :— 

9.14.0.0.0, 6 Ahau 13 Muan, Feb. 4, 452 A.D. Venus rises as 
morning star 

9.17.0:0.0, 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, Mar. 27, 511 A.D. Venus invisible 
during c¢on- 
junction 

10. 0.0.0.0, 7 Ahau 18 Zip, May 17, 570 A.D. Venus invisible 
during con- 
junction 

10; 3.00.0, 1 Ahau 38 Yaxkin, July 6, 629 A.D. Venus about to 
set as evening 
star 


The Venus table in the Dresden Codex, the intro- 
ductory page of which has been explained in an 
earlier section (see Plate XXIV) emphasizes the 
same Mayan and Gregorian positions of Venus as 
the ancient monuments but this table was evidently 
intended to be used between the Tenth and Thir- 
teenth centuries A. D. The point of departure for 
the table is 9.9.9.16.0, 1 Ahau 18 Kayab, April 12, 363 
A. D., which does not coincide with an heliacal rising 
of the planet, although April 12 and 18 Kayab occur 
in other connections at the time of the inauguration 
of the Venus calendar in the Sixth century B. C. 
But in the Lunar table we find 10.19.6.1.0, 4 Ahau 18 
Kayab, November 20, 950, which does reach an heli- 
acal rising of Venus as morning star. 


Summary of Mayan History. A brief summary 
of Mayan history is given below :— 


Protrouistoric Prriop 


Gimmie. to- 176 A.D. 7.0.0.0.0 to 9.0.0.0.0 


The counting of days apparently began on August 
6, 613 B. C. and the civil calendar in perfected form 


146 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


was inaugurated about 580 B. C. when 0 Pop coin- 
cided with the winter solstice, while the Venus 
calendar emerged half a century later. The calen- 
darial inventions, the numerical notation and the 
hieroglyphic system may, perhaps, be credited to 
the genius of one man afterwards deified as It- 
zamna. The earliest contemporary Mayan date 
occurs on a jade statuette from San Andres Tuxtla, 
and is May 16,98 B. C. The next earliest one is on 
the jade tablet known as the Leyden Plate and is 
November 17, 60 A. D., having reference to the Ve- 
nus calendar. This is followed almost immediately 
by several contemporary dates on monuments at 
Uaxactun which also are of astronomical import. 
The design on the Leyden Plate shows that the char- 
acteristic details of Mayan drawing had already 
been developed and we may surmise that during the 
protohistoric period the early carvings were on 
wood instead of stone and that the peculiar religion 
of the Mayas was even then beginning to erystallize 
around the serpent, the jaguar, ete. 


BarRLY PERIOD 


176A) D? tows ire 9.0.0.0.0 to 9.10.0.0.0 

During these ten katuns the great cities of the 
south make rapid strides towards grandeur. Pyra- 
midal mounds are erected and temples built upon 
them. Public squares are laid out and in these are 
set up stele and altars. The leading early cities 
are Palenque, Tikal, and Copan, where the dated 
monuments and temples mark rapid progress in the 
arts of sculpture and architecture while the subject 
matter of inscriptions reveals growing ability in 
astronomy and mathematics. Low angular relief 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 147 


characterizes stone sculptures and the profile pres- 
entation of the human figure is now handled more 
skilfully than front view. 


Mtrppitz Prriop 


pioene 4) 10,471 A.D. J £0;0:0.0510; 9. 177.0:0:0 


Some of the most beautiful monuments of the 
Mayas belong to this middle period. While archa- 
ism does not entirely disappear there is freshness, 
purity of style, and straightforwardness of presen- 
tation about the sculpture of this age. Flamboy- 
ancy is not apparent. At Copan the Great Mound 
was practically carried to completion during this 
period, an enormous undertaking which absorbed 
so much energy that few stele were set up. The 
best series of monuments from the middle period 
are seen at Naranjo and Piedras Negras. 


GREAT PERIOD 


4(/1-A-D. to 629 A.D. 9.15.0.0.0 to 10.3.0.0.0 


Many cities flourished in the culminating years of 
Mayan civilization. In addition to those already 
mentioned Quirigua, Ixkun, Seibal, Nakum, Can- 
cuen, Yaxchilan, Tonina, and Koba were important 
centers while a complete list of the sites with dated 
monuments would show many more names. The 
territorial extension reaches from northern Yucatan 
to the Guatemalan highlands and from southern 
Vera Cruz to central Honduras. Art passes 
through interesting changes with tendencies to- 
wards flamboyancy. Architecture makes great ad- 
vances: rooms become wider, walls thinner and 
forms more refined and pleasing. The calculations 
deal more and more with complicated astronomical 


148 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


subjects and dates belong less and less in the cate- 
gory of contemporary history. The first age of 
Mayan civilization, called the First Empire, comes 
to an end with Katun 3 of Cycle 10, a date registered 
at Uaxactun which, strangely enough, also boasts 
the earliest stela with a contemporary date. It is 
indicated that Uaxactun was occupied for 561 years 
while the range of dates at Tikal is 394 years. 
Abandonment of all the sites of the First Empire 
took place within something like fifty years. What 
caused this collapse? Civil war? Social deca- 
dence? Failure of food supply? Or perhaps some 
overwhelming epidemic? There is good reason for 
believing that the sudden appearance of yellow 
fever may have had a part in the catastrophe. Ref- 
erences in the Chronicles to the First Empire are 
very brief and do not help us find the answer to 
this mystery. 


TRANSITION PERIOD 


629 A.D. to 964 A. D. 10.3.0.0.0 to 11.0.0.0.0 


Most of the Mayas surviving the collapse of the 
First Empire seem to have found a second home in 
western Yucatan, especially in the region called 
Chakunputun in the Chronicles. Here the rainfall 
is much less and the forest environment not nearly 
so luxuriant. Certain cities, which probably date 
from this transitional period, such as Hochob, Dzib- 
inocac, Rio Bee, ete., have very beautiful architec- 
ture showing advances over that of the First Em- 
pire in some features. Dated documents are so 
rare as practically to be non-existent. It seems 
probable that Mavan learning had been reduced to 
books for there is ample evidence from the succeed- 
ing period that astronomical and calendarial knoyl- 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 149 


edge had been conserved from ancient times. At 
the end of these lean centuries, the Mayas made 
their way still farther north. Chichen Itza which 
had been a provincial city of the First Empire was 
reoccupied and the Mayan renaissance known as the 
Second Empire began. 


Prriop oF THE LeacuEt or MayapPan 

eee eto 1191 A.D.  11.0.0.0.0 to 11.11.10.0.0 

The first phase of the Mayan renaissance was 
pretty clearly centered in Chichen Itza although 
the earliest date which may be contemporary is 
probably that of the Temple of the Initial Series at 
Holactun. The inscription shows a survival of the 
ancient method of counting time and is now believed 
to treat of the interval between March 9, 1012 A. D. 
and November 14, 1016 A. D. Other cities rising to 
splendor during the Second Empire are Kabah, 
Labna, Sayil, and Izamal. The time of foundation 
for Uxmal is rather difficult to determine. <Accord- 
ing to tradition it was the capital of Toltec immi- 
erants into Yucatan, but when or how they arrived 
cannot be answered definitely. The League of 
Mayapan was organized as an alliance between 
Chichen Itza and Uxmal in the second half of the 
twelfth century, and Mayapan was built as a neu- 
tralized capital of church and state under the in- 
spiration of a Toltec noble named Quetzalcoatl. F'l- 
nally, Izamal and Chichen Itza rebelled and Inetzal- 
coatl conquered the latter city in 1191 and made it 
the capital of a Mayva-Toltec state. 


Periop oF Mexican INFLUENC® 
few). to 1437 A.D. 11.11.10.0.0 to 12.4.0.0.0 
The helpers of Hunac Ceel bore Mexican names 
and belonged to the Toltec nation. Hunac Ceel is 


150 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


identified in one place with Kukulcan, the name 
meaning ‘‘plumed serpent’’ in the Mayan language, 
and in another place with Quetzalcoatl which has the 
same significance in the Mexican language. In 
Chichen Itza sculptural art and architecture have 
many clear analogies to works in the Valley of Mex- 
ico. The building called the Castillo seems to have 
been built by Quetzalcoatl, being the first structure 
in which serpent columns and other structural ideas 
of this ruler were given expression. The Temple 
of the High Priest’s Grave is a developed example 
of the new style bearing the date December 31, Sau 
A. D. The elaborate Group of the Columns with 
the famous Temple of the Warriors, may be still 
later. 

In the first half of the fifteenth century civil war 
and epidemic disease brought about a second depop- 
ulation of the stone-built cities including Chichen 
Itza, Mayapan, Uxmal, and probably also numerous 
other sites in the region of Uxmal. The last monu- 
ment at Mayapan may declare the date September 
28, 1437. 

MopEerN PERIOD 


1437 A.D. to the present day. 


After the second general abandonment of urban 
life the Mayas seem to have been divided into many 
warring factions. Temples were still regarded as 
sacred and some constructions in stone and mortar 
were still made, as we know from the first Spanish 
descriptions of towns on the east coast of Yucatan. 
Tulum probably represented this last phase and 
this site on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean is prob- 
ably the city compared to Seville by the coasting 
expedition of Grijalva in 1o18. A monument at 


THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 151 


Tulum is believed to record the last setting up of 
a katun stone by the Mayas on 12.8.0.0.0, 2 Ahau 3 
Pop, August 5, 1516, almost exactly 2129 years after 
the Mayas began to count every day in order. 

At the present time certain ancient ideas still per- 
sist among the Lacandone Indians of the lowlands 
and among the Quiché, Cakchiquels, and several 
other tribes of the highlands. But the old glory of 
the Mayan civilizations has passed away never to 
return. A prophetic vision of this end is found in 
one of the Mayan Books of Chilam Balam which 
relates to events immediately after the founding of 
Merida. 

‘‘Tt was then that the teaching of Christianity 
began, that shall be universal over our land. Then 
began the construction of the church here in the 
center of the town of Tihoo: great labor was the 
destiny of the katun. Then began the execution by 
hanging, and the fire at the ends of our hands. 
Then also came ropes and cords into the world. 
Then the children of the younger brothers (the In- 
dians) passed under the hardship of legal summons 
and tribute. Tribute was introduced on a large 
scale and Christianity was introduced on a large 
seale. Then the seven sacraments of the word of 
God were established. Let us receive our guests 
heartily: our elder brothers (the white men) come!’’ 


CST 


‘rouuvi AT1ap10 
uv Ut S}IN0D PUNoIe posuvsrv Oe SpuNnow 94], “YON oy} WOIZ UVATV OFUOTY FO MOTA [BOW “TAXX Pld 


CuHapter III 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 


T° HE influence of the Mayan civilization when at 
ae its height (400 to 600 A. D.) may be traced far 
beyond the limits of the Mayan area. Ideas 
in art, religion, and government that were then 
spread broadcast served to quicken nations of di- 
verse speech and a series of divergent cultures re- 
sulted. Most of these lesser civilizations were at 
their best long after the great Mayan civilization 
had declined, but one or two were possibly contem- 
porary. It will be the aim in the present chapter 
to emphasize the indebtedness of these lesser civ- 
ilizations to the Mayas as well as to comment upon 
their individual characters. 

We will first proceed northwest into Mexico and 
then southeast into the Isthmus of Panama. The 
environment under which the Mayas developed their 
arts of life continues in narrowing bands westward 
along the Gulf of Mexico and southward across the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The most westerly Ma- 
yan city of importance seems to have been Comal- 
caleo. But there is also a large ruin near San 
Andres Tuxtla and it may be significant that the 
earliest dated object of the Mavas (the Tuxtla 
Statuette) came from this region. In other words, 
the cradle of Mayan culture may have been in this 
coastal belt where arid and humid conditions exist 
side by side and where the figurines of the archaic 
type are found together with those of the Mayas. 
Unfortunately, the archeology of this part of Mex- 
ico has been little studied. 

153 


154 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


The Olmeca or Rubber People. The Olmeca may 
be placed in the humid region of southern Vera Cruz 
and western Tabasco which the Aztecs of later times 
called Nonoaleo. This region is frequently men- 
tioned in the most ancient of the Mexican traditions, 
doubtless symbolizing in a general way the civiliz- 
ing contacts with the Mayas. Rubber is called olli 
in the Mexican language and while the earliest 
known specimens of rubber are those found in the 
Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, the ceremonial and 
practical uses of the material are mostly mentioned 
in connection with the Olmeca and Totonac peoples. 
Rubber was used for incense, for water-proofing 
purposes, to tip drumsticks, ete. A large rubber 
ball was also used in a sacred game which may be 
compared to basket ball since the goals were rings 
set high up in the parallel walls of a specially con- 
structed court. 

According to Ixtlilxochitl’s history the Olmeca 
came before the Toltecs and were the first to extend 
their civilizing rule over parts of the Mexican high- 
lands. Some authorities think the Olmeca were a 
Mayan tribe but it is quite possible that they 
spoke Mexican. They may have fled south at the 
breakdown of the Toltec empire for we find in Nica- 
ragua at the time of the Conquest a group of this 
name with traditions pointing to the far north. 
The ruins found in 1927 by the writer at Cerro de 
las Mesas, west of Alvarado Lagoon, may possibly 
be ascribed to this people. The site contains seven- 
teen monuments, several of which are dedicated to 
Quetzalcoatl and must be referred to the thirteenth 
century. Bars and dots are used in connection with 
day signs to record dates which may belong to the 


CST 
"SMOOY O[-[19D [RWG PUR SMOTJEpPUNOT T[VA\ SUIMOYsS uLqry oyuoyY FO [Ieeq “ITAXX 7d 


156 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


calendarial system appearing on Zapotecan monu- 
ments. 


Zapotecan Culture. In the State of Oaxaca the 
Zapotecan Indians attained to a high degree of civ- 
ilization, but a study of their culture shows they 
were profoundly indebted to the Mayas for many 
ideas. Monte Alban, the White Mountain, over- 
looking the modern City of Oaxaca is the principal 
archeological site in point of size and may have 
been the ancient capital. It was abandoned before 
the coming of the Spaniards, however, and Mitla 
appears to have taken its place. 


Fig. 52. Comparison of Mayan and Zapotecan Serpent Heads. 
The first two examples are from Palenque and the second two from 
Monte Alban. 


Unfortunately no extensive traditions have come 
down to us to help in the restoration of Zapotecan 
history, or in that of the neighboring Mixtecs. Al- 
though the art, hieroglyphic writing, and calendar 
system were pretty clearly derived from the Mayas, 
nevertheless there was time and opportunity for 
these to develop interesting characters of their own. 
It is impossible to tell from the record whether the 
Zapotecs ever embarked on a career of empire: the 
area in which the full complex of the characteristic 
products occurs is practically limited to the area at 
present occupied by the tribe. It is quite possible 
that the Zapotecs were conquered by the Toltecs in 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 157 


the twelfth century and that such similarities as 
exist between the forms of Zapotecan sculptural art 
and those of the Toltec cities of Xochicaleo and Te- 
otihuacan in central Mexico, on the one hand, and 
those of Pipil and Chorotegan sites in Guatemala 
and Salvador, on the other hand, are to be explained 
by intercommunications under the Toltec régime. 


@ BS 


O00 O06 


Fig. 5b3.. Bar and x aoe combined with ea on 
Zapotecan Monuments. 


Monte Alban and Mitla stand in. ee ore ‘contrast 
to each other, the first crowning-a mountain ridge, 
the second occupying a valley site. Monte Alban 
has no buildings intact, but shows:a vast: assemblage 
of enormous pyramids and platforms. -Mitla has 
only one small pyramid, but boasts a series of finely 
preserved temples on low platform bases. In 
Monte Alban we find monolithic monuments com- 
parable to the stele of the Mayas, and carrying 
hieroglyphic inscriptions: also pottery figurines 
and jade amulets in a style which follows rather 
closely the models developed in the early cities of 
the humid lowlands. At Mitla there are none of 
these things: instead, the architectural decoration 
shows a most interesting use of textile designs 
treated in a mosaic of cut stones. It is apparent 
then that a long record of high culture is to be found 
in the Zapotecan field. 

At Monte Alban there are one or two narrow 
vaulted chambers in mounds, but on the tops of the 
mounds the few excavations have disclosed only 


*, 


Plate XXVIII. Zapotecan Art: Incense Burners, Funerary 
Vases of Portrait Type, Cruciform Tomb with Geometric Decora- 


tion, 


158 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 159 


simple cell-like rooms which probably had flat roofs. 
Some hints of ancient architectural decoration can 
be picked up here and there. Figures similar to 
those modeled in bold relief on the fronts of the cyl- 
indrical funeral urns (see frontispiece) seem to 
have been used over doorways, somewhat after the 
fashion of the Mayan mask panels. 

The hieroglyphs that are found on the stele of 
Monte Alban and on stone slabs from other sites, 
resemble the Mayan hieroglyphs in the use of bar 
and dot numerals, but the day and month signs have 
never been identified with either the Mayan or Az- 
tecan system, although almost certainly dealing with 
the same type of calendar. Lintels with lines of 
hieroglyphs on the outer edge have been found in 
burial chambers at Cuilapa and Xoxo. The forms 
at the former site are clearly and beautifully drawn, 
while at the latter site they are degenerate and prob- 
ably merely decorative. 

In Zapotecan funerary urns a close connection 
with Mayan art can easily be demonstrated. The 
urns are cylindrical vessels concealed behind elab- 
orate figures built up from moulded and modeled 
pieces. Many of these built-up figures clearly rep- 
resent human beings while others represent gro- 
tesque divinities or human beings wearing the 
masks of divinities. The purely human types have 
a formal modeling in high relief, the head usually 
being out of proportion to the rest of the body. 
The pose is ordinarily a seated one with the hands 
resting on the knees or folded over the breast. De- 
tails of dress are very clearly shown including 
capes, girdles, aprons, or skirts and headdresses. 
Necklaces are often worn with a crossbar pendant 
to which shells are attached. Headdresses are 


160 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


made of feathers and grotesque faces and are often 
very elaborate. As for the divine types the jaguar 
and a long-nosed reptile are the most common. The 
latter has a human body and may possibly be an 
adaptation of the Mayan Long-nosed God. 

The funerary urns are found in burial mounds 
called mogotes which contain cell-like burial cham- 
bers. The urns are not found within these cells 
but on the floor in front of them, in a niche over 
the door, or even on the roof. They are frequently 
encountered in groups of five and seem never to 
contain offerings. | 

Other Zapotecan pottery is mostly made of the 
same bluish clay used in the urns. This clay 1s 
finely adapted to plastic treatment but never carries 
painted designs. The pottery products include 
pitchers of beautiful and unusual shapes, dishes 
with tripod legs modeled into serpent heads, in- 
cense burners, bowls, plates, ete. Of the same clay 
are also made whistles in realistic forms, and 
moulded figurines. Painted pottery also occurs in 
forms and designs of rare beauty, but it is much 
less characteristic of the Zapotecan province than 
the unpainted ware. 

Carved jades of splendid workmanship have been 
recovered in the Zapotecan region and there is rea- 
son to believe that this semi-precious stone was ob- 
tained here in the natural state. Many of the pieces 
are smoothed only on the front, while the back re- 
tains its old weathered and stream-worn surface. 
Beautiful examples of gold work found in this re- 
eion must be given a late date. 

Splendid manuscripts were obtained by the Span- 
iards in the Zapotecan region, but the pictures of 
the gods as well as the hieroglyphs show strong 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 161 


Aztecan influences. These 
will be discussed briefly in 
a later section. Some ac- 
counts have been preserved 
of the special features of 
Zapotecan religion which 
mark them off rather 
sharply from the Aztecs, 
however. 
The high priests of the 
Zapotecans were called 
‘<Seers’’ and the ordinary 
priests were ‘‘Guardians 
of the Gods’’ and ‘‘Sacri- 
ficers.’”? There was a sort 
of priestly college where 
the sons of chiefs were 
trained in the service of 
the gods. The religious 
practices included incense 
burning, sacrificing of 
birds, and animals, and let- 
ting of one’s own blood by 
piercing the tongue and the 
ear. Human sacrifice was 
made on stated occasions 
and was attended by rites 
of great solemnity. The 
Zapotecs never went to the 
blood excesses that stain 
the annals of the Aztecs. 
The 260 day cycle of the 
time count, was subdivided 


Fig. 54. Detail of Wall 
into four periods of 65 Construction at Mitla, showing 
days and each period Was the separately Carved Stones. 


[b] 
Plate XXIX. (a) Stone Sculpture of the Early Zapotecan 
Period showing Rulers seated upon Thrones before an Altar; (b) 


Jade Tablets pierced for Suspension, found in Zapotecan Tomb, 
162 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 163 


under control of a single god and was associated 
with one of the cardinal points. Each period of 
sixty-five days was further divided into five groups 
of thirteen days for a ceremonial reason. Some 
authorities have considered that the general form 
of the Central American calendar originated in the 
region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and spread 
to the north and to the south. But dependable his- 
tory in the Mayan area goes back much farther than 
in the Zapotecan region and renders such a guess 
extremely hazardous. 


Mitla. The famous temples of Mitla are the best- 
preserved examples of architecture on the highlands 
of Mexico and are peculiar in form and decoration. 
The word Mitla is a corruption of the Aztecan word 


Fig. 55. Wall Paintings of Mitla, resembling in style the Pic- 
tographie Art of the Codices from Southern Mexico. 


Mictlan, place of the dead. This site was the burial 
ground of Zapotecan kings and may have been a 
place of pilgrimage. It was conquered by the Az- 
tees in the last decade of the fifteenth century. 
While the architecture belongs in a class by itself 
the frescoes have the distinct character of the Az- 
tecan period. 

The remains at this site have already been con- 
trasted with those at Monte Alban. There is one 
fairly large mound at Mitla but it has no surviving 


164 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


superstructure. The temples are placed on low 
platforms which usually contain cruciform tombs. 
The buildings are carefully oriented and are as- 
sembled in groups of four which almost enclose 
square paved courts. The heavy walls have sur- 
faces of cut stone and a filling of concrete or rubble 
and are ornamented with longitudinal panels of 
geometric designs arranged according to a care- 
fully worked out plan. The geometric patterns are 
based on textile art and the mosaics of separately 
carved stones which fit neatly together preserve for 
us the ancient designs on belts and mantles. The 
chambers are long and narrow and formerly had 
flat roofs which have completely vanished. The 
wide doorways usually have two piers which help 
to support the lintel blocks. These are carefully 
trimmed stones of great length and weight. All 
the outer surfaces of the Mitla temples were sized 
with plaster and painted red and the frescoes, traces 
of which can still be seen in several buildings, are 
in red and black upon a white base. Various gods 
and ceremonies are represented in these frescoes, 
but only the upper portion of the bands can be made 
out in detail. 

Cruciform tombs are found under several of the 
temples at Mitla as well as at a number of neigh- 
boring sites such as Xaaga and Guiaroo. In these 
tombs the designs in panels appear on the inside and 
are carved directly on large blocks of stone. Pot- 
tery remains are rare in the cruciform tombs of the 
Mitla type but a few examples of gold work have 
been discovered in them. 

Within a short distance of Mitla is a fortified hill 
with several heavy walls that still stand to the 
height of perhaps twenty feet. In the flat valley 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 165 


between this hill and the ruins a considerable num- 
ber of potsherds are plowed up in the field. 


Totonacan Culture. In the central part of the 
state of Vera Cruz are found the remains commonly 
referred to the Totonacan Indians. These Indians 
are southern neighbors of the Huastecas who are 
an outlying Mayan tribe. The Totonacan language 


— a Pe YQ c-~ 
1 2 3 4 5 6. ¥ 
Fig. 56. The Eyes of Totonacan Figurines. 


is according to some authorities thrown into the 
Mayan stock. If not truly Mayan it contains many 
loan words. This apparent connection in language 
is all the more interesting in view of the character 
of Totonacan art which also shows a strong strain 
of Mayan feeling and technique in certain products 
but an unmistakable likeness to the archaic art of 
the Mexican highlands in certain other products. 
The pottery faces in the archaic style are advanced 
beyond the average of such work and probably rep- 
resent a late phase. 

A series of eyes showing Totonacan modifications 
of the styles prevalent on the archaic pottery heads 
of the Highlands is given in Fig. 56. In some eases 
we find the simple single or double groove eyes and 
in other cases these eyes are made more conspicuous 
by the use of black bituminous paint. The eyeball 
is developed at the end of the series. 

The smiling or laughing faces have a much higher 
technique and are perhaps the finest examples of 
clay modeling from the New World. These heads 
have tubular extensions at the back and were possi- 
bly set into temple walls. The faces and foreheads 


166 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


are broadened in accordance with the esthetic type 
of a forehead flattening people. While the faces 
vary so much in minor details as to create the im- 
pression that they are portraits of actual persons 


se 
See 


Plate XXX. Laughing Head of the Totonacs, remarkable ex- 
ample of Freehand Modeling in Clay. Heads of this type probably 
served as decorative details on temple fronts. 


they are alike in method of modeling. Nearly all 
are laughing or smiling in a very contagious fashion. 
Sometimes the tip of the tongue is caught between 
the teeth, sometimes the corners of the mouth are 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 167 


pulled down as if the smile were reluctant, and there 
are other individual variations in the expressions 
of lively and unrestrained mirth. 

Perhaps the most famous objects found in Toto- 
nacan territory are the so-called ‘‘stone collars’’ or 
‘sacrificial yokes.’’ In size and shape these re- 
semble horse collars, but in contrast to somewhat 
similar objects from Porto Rico they are usually 
open while the latter are closed. Nothing is really 
known concerning their use but there has been no 
lack of fanciful surmises. The most popular ex- 
planation is that the yokes were placed over the 
necks of victims about to be sacrificed. It is evident 
that the yokes were intended to be placed in a hori- 
zontal position because there is a plain lower sur- 
face and the ends are frequently carved with faces 
that are right side up only when the plain side is 
down. These yokes represent the richest and most 
elaborate works of art in the entire region since 
they are carved in the most finished manner from 
single blocks of exceedingly hard stone. 

Other peculiarly shaped stones are found in the 
Totonacan area and are carved according to the 
same splendid technique. The ‘‘paddle-shaped”’ 
stones have been found in considerable numbers and 
their use, like that of the stone yokes, is absolutely 
unknown. It is evident from the carving that they 
were intended to be stood on end. 

The designs on the sacrificial yokes and paddle 
stones are largely reptilian, but there are examples 
where the turkey, the coyote, as well as the human 
motive are treated somewhat after the manner of 
the Mayas. Plumed serpents, monkeys, centipedes, 
and crocodiles are interestingly drawn on pottery. 
An important site is Papantla where a remarkably 


89T 


‘SYJNOW Itoy} UL SoYLUS SUIP[OY oie sornoy enbse} 


-018 OM], ‘ZNIQ VIA FO OFVIG OY} MOIF OM0}G OVC V (q) ‘suvIpuy UvovuozOT, ey} FO 
ainydnog 4sog oy} Fo opduexgy ue ‘ETON euojg porteg AjoyesogeyY UV (VP) "IXXX ld 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 169 


ornate pyramid rising in six terraces may be seen, 
as well as massive sculptures in the same style as 
the works of art described above. The front wall 
of each terrace on all four sides of the pyramid, 
except for the space occupied by the stairway, is 
divided into a series of niches neatly made of cut 
stone. Formerly each of these niches may have 
served to shelter the statue of some god. Many 
fine remains of Totonacan art have been recovered 
from the Island of Sacrifices in the harbor of Vera 
Cruz. This island retained its ancient sacrificial 
character in the time of the Spanish conquerors. 
It is apparent, however, that the culture had already 
changed greatly if we may judge by the ruins of 
Cempoalan, the Totonacan capital in the sixteenth 
century. The art of this city is largely Aztecan. 


The Toltecs. Mexican history is greatly con- 
cerned with the Toltecs, the name meaning People 
of Tula, or Tollan, ‘‘place of the reeds.’’ Evidence 
is accumulating that this Tula was not the com- 
paratively insignificant ruin on the northern edge 
of the Valley of Mexico, but instead was the great 
eity of San Juan Teotihuacan. The lesser Tula 
may have been founded about 1200 A. D., just be- 
fore the collapse of Toltee power. 

Archeology tells a more detailed and convincing 
story of the Toltees than does recorded history. In 
the stratified remains at Atzcapotzalco, the objects 
accredited to the Toltees overlie those of the first 
potters of the Archaic Period and are in striking 
contrast to them. The principal motives of Toltec 
decorative art are obviously related to the earlier 
more brilliant work of the Mayas. The pyramids 
of the Toltecs exceed in size those of the Mayas but 


170 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


are of inferior construction, adobe bricks with con- 
crete facing taking the place of rubble and cut stone. 
The temples that crowned these pyramids were also 
of less solid construction and no single example is 
now intact. Vaulted ceilings were replaced by flat 
timbered ceilings or high pitched roofs of thatch. 
Sometimes in wide rooms columns were used as ad- 
ditional support for roof beams. The eroundplans 
of buildings other than temples show small rooms 
arranged in an irregular fashion round courts. 

The ceremonial game of tlachtli resembling basket 
ball was an important feature of Toltec religion. It 
may have been obtained from the Olmeca, but at any 
rate spread far and wide under the Toltec régime. 
Another feature of Toltec religion was the worship 
of the sun’s disk which is reflected in various sculp- 
tures. Also this people are supposed to have in- 
vented pulque, made from the fermented sap of the 
agave. The reclining type of sculpture known as 
Chaemool, after the famous example found at 
Chichen Itza in northern Yucatan, may be a relic 
of a peculiar Toltec cult in which drunkenness fig- 
ured. Human sacrifice was another feature of the 
religion of the Mexican highlands in contrast to 
that of the lowland Mayas. On the economic side 
Toltec culture rested on the earlier Archaic civiliza- 
tion, but on the artistic and ceremonial side it was 
largely inspired by the Mayas through the media- 
tion of the Zapotecs, Olmecs, and Totonaces, but with 
new emphasis on certain aspects and several im- 
portant innovations. The language of the Toltecs 
seems to have been essentially the same as that of 
the Aztecs who sueceeded them. 

The Toltecs made a radical departure in social 
policy in that they took to war and expropriation as 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS Wal 


a means of building up national wealth, thereby 
paralleling, somewhat ineffectively to be sure, the 
political methods of Europe and Western Asia. 
There had been war before their time in Central 
America, but not apparently for aggrandizement. 
The Mayas, and most other Mexican and Central 
American nations, developed excess food supply > 
which released many persons for the pursuit of 
art and science. Perhaps it was pressure of popu- 
lation upon food supply in an arid land that directed 
the Toltecs towards tribute taking. At least the 
fact is reasonably clear that this people did embark 
upon a short-lived career of conquest and that they 
levied tribute of precious stones and precious metals 
and secured by the same means an augmented food 
supply. 

There is confusion and reduplication in the lists 
of Toltec rulers and only three great names in suc- 
cession can be regarded as certain. These are 
Huetzin, Ihuitimal, and Quetzalcoatl, although it 
seems probable that there was a still earlier chief- 
tain named Mixcoatl or Mixcoamazatl and that two 
successors of Quetzaleoatl were Matlaxochitl and 
Nauyotl, the last-named also figuring as the first 
lord of Colhuacan. Then follow various dynastic 
lists for several Mexican tribes which flourished be- 
tween the downfall of the Toltecs and the coming of 
the Spaniards. 


Quetzalcoatl and the Toltec Era. The chronology 
of the Toltees and their successors is greatly dilated 
in several historical compilations made after the 
Spanish conquest by intelligent natives who inter- 
preted fragments of ancient pictographic year 
counts then surviving in Mexico. Thanks to a mod- 


172 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


ern survey of materials much more extensive than 
those which Chimalpahin, Ixtlilxochitl, ete., had at 
their disposal, we are now able to avoid the errors 
of these writers. 

In the original pre-Spanish chronicles important 
events are recorded in connection with fifty-two 
year signs falling in regular order and then repeat- 
ing. In the well-intentioned attempts to restore 
Mexican history entire cycles are interpolated in 
several places and the rulers are given lives of 1m- 
possible length. In the case of Ixtlilxochitl we pos- 
sess, fortunately, the principal documents which 
this descendant of the Texcocan kings attempted to 
interpret. Also in the case of the Annals of Quauh- 
titlan, an early compilation made by a nameless 
student of ancient history, we are in position to 
adjudicate wide errors in chronology. There is an 
annotation on this manuscript reading ‘‘6 times 4 
centuries, plus 1 century, plus 13 years, today the 
92nd of May 1558.’? The ‘‘centuries’’ are the na- 
tive cycles of fifty-two years and the total on this 
basis would amount to 1313 years. Subtracted 
from 1558 the beginning would be found in 240 
A. D., while the years set down by the compiler in 
an unbroken series reach back to 6385 A. D. But 
there is no pre-Spanish support for written history, 
outside the Mayan area, of anything like this antiq- 
uity. 

The Toltec Era was established by Quetzalcoatl, 
after a simplified model of the Mayan calendar, on 
August 6, 1168 A. D., this date corresponding to a 
day 1 Tecpatl (1 Flint) in the first position of a 
month Toxeatl. This day gave its name to the en- 
tire year and its hieroglyph was one of a series of 
fifty-two used to designate years in the pictographic 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 173 


records. Most of the Mexican year counts begin 
with the particular sign 1 Tecpatl which corresponds 
to 1168-69 A. D. In others there is reference to a 
day 7 Acatl 1 Panquetzaliztli in a year 2 Acatl (Feb- 
ruary 16, 1195 A. D.) upon which a new fire cere- 
mony, established by Quetzaleoatl in accordance 
with Mayan usage, was celebrated at intervals of 
fifty-two years. 

The conclusions are supported by evidence in 
Guatemalan chronicles and also in records of the 
Mayas for we have already seen that Quetzalcoatl 
conquered Chichen Itza in 1191 A. D. The three 
great Toltec emperors, Huetzin, Ihuitimal, and 
Quetzaleoatl, swept over an area extending from 
Durango to Nicaragua, the three seats of their gov- 
ernment being Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, 
Chichen Itza in Yucatan, and Iximché in Guatemala. 

Quetzalcoatl probably spent his youth in Yucatan, 
returning to his highland home with strange reli- 
gious and social ideas. His opposition to the Toltec 
idea of human sacrifice was followed by a war of 
cults. Quetzaleoatl began the construction at Tula 
with serpent columns like those of his lofty temple 
in Chichen Itza. Also he appears to have founded 
Cholula as a special center for his humane religion. 
His death occurred in connection with a prognosti- 
cation in the Venus calendar of the Mayas, for the 
year 1 Acatl, 1207-08 A. D. 

Quetzalcoatl, perhaps the most remarkable figure 
in ancient American history, was emperor, artist, 
scientist, and humanist philosopher. He _ estab- 
lished orders of knighthood as well as the corona- 
tion ceremony used by the later Mexican kings. He 
developed the various industrial arts and built up 
a wide trade in cotton, cacao, and other products. 


aseq pornjdnos oy} s 


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‘QA0G WI9S JLB JOS} opduro} ay} FO ST[VM OTL ‘pruvakd oduray 04} FO 
Moys orngord oy} FO yxed IOMOT OYJ, “WOTPBIOJSOY OLOFOG OOTBOTYPOK qe ojduiay, on, “IIXXX 4*Id 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 175: 


As a patron of the peripatetic merchant he appears 
under the name Naecxitl, which means Four-way 
Foot. Apotheosis being an idea strongly fixed 
among the Toltecs, Quetzalcoatl was deified as Ehe- 
catl, God of Winds, on account of his support of the 
Mayan god of rainstorms, and for his astronomical 
work he was further deified as God of the Planet 
Venus. 

San Juan Teotihuacan. This name Teotihuacan 
means Where the Gods (1.e., the deified dead) Dwell. 
This enormous ruin is located on the eastern margin 
of the Valley of Mexico. The principal features of 
Teotihuacan are two great pyramids and a straight 
roadway lined with small pyramids. There are 
also several groups of buildings of which the lower 
walls and the bases of the piers are still to be seen 
as well as some interesting fragments of fresco 
painting. ‘The smaller of the two great pyramids is 
ealled the Pyramid of the Moon. It is located at 
the end of the roadway which is commonly called 
the Pathway of the Dead. The Pyramid of the 
Sun is situated on the east side of the roadway. 
This pyramid is about 180 feet in height and rises 
in four sloping terraces. The temple which for- 
merly crowned its summit has entirely disappeared. 
Explorations conducted by the Mexican government 
showed that this pyramid was enlarged from time 
to time and old stairways buried under new ma- 
sonry. On the south side of the small stream that 
flows through the ruins is a group of buildings 
ealled the Citadel. 

In 1921 the Mexican Government undertook a 
restoration of the Citadel, following the discovery 
of remarkable sculptures on the principal pyramid. 
It appears that in ancient times this pyramid was 


[Oo] 

Plate XXXIII. Two Views of the Principal Pyramid in the 
Citadel at Teotihuacan. (a) General view of the original mass 
of the pyramid at the back with the reconstructed addition in 
front. (b) View of stairway and various walls covered up and 
preserved by the addition 


176 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS ie 


enlarged by an addition to one side and the richly 
ornamented terraces and stairway buried (Plate 
XXXIII). The seulptured stones from the other 
three sides of the temple were allowed to fall into 
neglect by the Toltecs or were carried away and 
put to other uses, but the portion buried was kept 
in its original state. The colors are still bright in 
many places and the great heads of plumed serpents 
and obsidian butterflies sometimes retain their inset 
eyes of obsidian. The decoration is a repeated 
motive. The head of the feathered serpent projects 
outward from the terrace walls and from the balus- 
trade of the stairway, while the body is in low relief. 
The tail of the serpent has a rattle, and the body is 
covered with feathers. Shells are seen below the 
serpent where the body arches and just in front of 
the tail is a massive head with two rings on the 
frontal. This doubtless represents the Obsidian 
Butterfly, a divinity of great importance among the 
Toltees, which is represented unmistakably in fres- 
coes at Teotihuacan as well as on pottery. The Cit- 
adel well deserves its name, since it is a great en- 
closure, much like a fort, with buildings upon its 
bulwarks, and with steep outer walls, which could 
easily be defended. 

A few large sculptures have been found at Teoti- 
huacan. But the site is chiefly remarkable for pot- 
tery figurines and heads that are picked up by thou- 
sands. The heads present such a marked variety 
of facial contour and expression that it would seem 
as if every race under the sun had served as models. 
It is very likely that these heads formed part of 
votive offerings, being attached to bodies made of 
some perishable material. The heads were seldom 
used to adorn pottery vessels, although many mod- 


178 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


ern and fraudulent vases are so adorned. Dolls 
with head and torso in one piece and with movable 
arms and legs made of separate pieces were known. 
The face of Tlaloe, the Rain God, is fairly common 
in Teotihuacan pottery but other deities have not 
surely been identified. It is not improbable that 
the God of Fire is personified as an old man with 
wrinkled face, but somewhat less 
likely that Xipe is represented in 
the faces that look out through 
‘the three holes of a mask. The 
jaguar, the monkey, the owl, and 
other animals are also modeled 
with excellent fidelity. The 
Mayan convention of the human 
face in the open jaws of the ser- 
pent is not unknown. 

A number of beautiful vases 
painted in soft greens, pinks, and 
yellows have been recovered 
at Teotihuacan. These colors 
would not stand the kiln and 
they were applied after the ves- 

Fig. 57. Jointea Sel had been burned. According 
Doll of Clay from San to one method, the outside of the 
Juan Teotihuacan. vessel was covered with a fine 

coating of plaster upon which 
the design was painted exactly as in fresco. Ac- 
cording to a second method the effect of cloisonné 
was alevorls achieved. This technique is most char- 
acteristic of the region northwest of the Valley of 
Mexico and will be “described later. Incised or en- 
eraved designs are commonly met with on pottery 
vessels at Teotihuacan. No inscriptions have been 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 179 


found at this ruin, in spite of the many years of 
exploration. 


Xochicalco. Let us now pass over in brief review 
several ruins which belong to the Toltecan period. 
Xochicaleo, the House of the Flowers, is a large ruin 
near Cuernavaca. The position seems to have been 
chosen primarily for defense. The rounded ridge 
that drops off into deep valleys on either side is laid 
out in courts, terraces, and pyramids. Only one 
building offers evidence of the sculptural skill of 
the ancient habitants. Itis a temple, standing upon 
a rather low platform mound. The sides of the 
platform mound are decorated with great plumed 
serpents, seated human figures, hieroglyphs, ete. 
Parts of the sculptures also remain on the low walls 
of the temple itself which is now roofless. The 
stone carving at Xochicalco resembles that of Monte 
Alban especially as regards the hieroglyphs and is 
probably of somewhat later date than Teotihuacan. 
All in all the conclusion seems safe that writing was 
unknown outside the Mayan area before Quetzal- 
coatl devised ways and means. 


Tula. Building stone of good quality was avail- 
able at this site and in consequence sculptures are 
plentiful. Particularly famous are the great sculp- 
tured columns which represent feathered serpents 
and gigantic human figures. The drums are mostly 
mortised and the columns are crowned by true cap- 
itals. These architectural features at Tula find 
their closest counterpart at the Mayan city of 
Chichen Itza in northern Yucatan. The tlachtli or 
ball court occurs at Tula and the groundplans of 
complicated ‘‘palaces’’ can also be made out. 


180 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Cholula. The sacred city of Cholula, in the en- 
virons at Puebla, is chiefly famous for its great 
pyramid. This structure is more or less irregular 
in shape but the base averages more than a thou- 
sand feet on the side and the total height, now some- 
what reduced, was probably close to two hundred 
feet above the plain. Compared with the Pyramid 
of Cheops, it covers nearly twice as much eround 
and has a much greater volume, but lacks of course, 
in height. As already noted, the pyramids of the 
New World are simply foundations for temples and 
thus always have flat tops. The great mound of 


SP 4 


a 
i eats | 
Seer. 79 


Fig. 58. Pottery Plates from Cholula with Decorations in Sev- 
eral Colors. The pottery of Cholula ranks high in design and 
color. 


Cholula is a solid mass of adobe bricks of uniform 
size laid in adobe mortar. The pyramid was evi- 
dently faced with a thick layer of cement of which 
a few patches still remain. Two other large 
mounds exist at Cholula. One of these has been 
partially destroyed and now stands as a vertical 
mass of adobe bricks while the other is overgrown 
with brush and cactus. 


[b] 

Plate XXXIV. (a) Partial View of the Great Pyramid at 
Cholula which rises from the Level Plain in Three Broad Terraces. 
A Spanish church has been built upon the top of this pyramid and 
a roadway leads up the badly eroded mound. (b) A View at La 
Quemada. Cylindrical columns built up of slabs of stone sup- 
ported the roofs of some of the structures. The use of columns 
was characteristic of late Toltecan times, 


181 


182 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Unlike the other Toltecan cities Cholula was still 
inhabited and a place of religious importance when 
Cortez arrived in Mexico. But the figurines and 
pottery vessels that are found at this site belong 
for the most part to an epoch earlier than that of 
the Aztecs. Quetzaleoatl was the patron deity of 
Cholula and in the decorative art the serpent 1s 
finely conventionalized. A pottery shape fre- 
quently met with at Cholula is the flat plate bearing 
polychrome designs. 


The Frontier Cities of the Northwest. An impor- 
tant culture area is located upon the northwestern 
limits of the area of high culture in ancient Mexico. 
The best known and most accessible ruin is La 
Quemada, ‘‘The Burned’’ which is situated a day’s 
ride from the city of Zacatecas. This site was 
found in a deserted and ruinous condition by the 
Spaniards in 1535 and there is little doubt that it 
had been abandoned several centuries previous. 
La Quemada has been popularly associated with 
Chicomoztoc, ‘The Seven Caves,’’ a place famous 
in Aztecan mythology, but this association rests 
upon no scientific basis. It is simply an unauthori- 
tative attempt to invest a forgotten city with a 
legendary interest. Chicomoztoc, where the Aztecs 
came out of the underworld might be compared with 
our own Garden of Eden and its exact location is 
just as much an eternal riddle. La Quemada is a 
terraced hill resembling Monte Alban and Xochi- 
caleo. The retaining walls of terraces and pyra- 
mids as well as the walls of buildings are still well 
preserved. These walls consist of slabs of stone 
set in a mortar of red earth. Perhaps the most 
noteworthy structure is a wide hall containing seven 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 183 


columns built of slabs of stone in the same manner 
as the walls. All in all the architectural types as 
well as the observed contacts in art point to a late 
epoch of the Toltecan period. Other ruins of the 
same character as La Quemada occur at Chalchi- 
huites on the frontier of Durango and at Totoate, 
ete., in northern Jalisco. 

The most important artistic product from this 
northwestern region is a peculiar kind of pottery 
which might be described as cloisonné or encaustic 
ware. Kxamination shows that this pottery was 
first burned in the usual way so that it acquired a 
red or orange color. Then the surface was covered 
with a layer of greenish or blackish pigment to 
the depth of perhaps a sixteenth of an inch. A 
large part of this surface layer was then carefully 
cut away with a sharp blade in such a way that the 
remaining portions outlined certain geometric and 
realistic figures. The sunken spaces, from which 
the material had just been removed, were then filled 
in flush with red, yellow, white, and green pigments. 
The designs on this class of pottery are thus mosaics 
in which the different colors are separated by nar- 
row lines of a neutral tint. The geometric motives 
show a marked use of the terrace, the fret, and the 
scroll. The realistic subjects are presented in a 
highly conventionalized manner and have few sty- 
listic similarities to the figures from the Valley of 
Mexico. Representative collections of this ware 
from Totoate, already referred to, and from Estan- 
zuela, a hacienda near Guadalajara, are on exhibi- 
tion in the American Museum of Natural History. 

Cloisonné pottery of a somewhat different style 
sometimes occurs at Toltecan sites in the Valley of 
Mexico, such as Tula, Teotihuacan, and Atzcapot- 


184 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


zalco, but fresco pottery which resembles it at first 
glance is more characteristic. It appears that the 
cloisonné process was taken over from the embel- 
lishment of gourd dishes in connection with which 
‘t still exists over a large part of Mexico and Cen- 
tral America. 

Another common method of ceramic decoration 
taken over was that of negative painting similar to 
the process used with cloth in making batik designs. 


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Fig. 59. Vessel with ‘‘Cloisonné’’ Decoration in Heavy Pig- 
ments. This example comes from a mound at Atzcapotzaleo and 
dates from late Toltecan times. Trade pieces of this ware have been 
found at Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico and Chichen Itza in Yucatan. 


This process still exists in Central America as re- 
eards gourd dishes although discontinued on pot- 
tery. Negative painting appears to be an ancient 
process of exceedingly wide distribution. It is 
especially common in Jalisco and Michoacan, the 
Valley of Toluca, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 185 


and Colombia, and sometimes occurs in Yucatan and 
Peru. The design was painted in wax or some 
other soluble or combustible paint, then the entire 
surface was covered with a permanent paint. 


Fig. 60. The Turtle Motive as developed in Negative Painting 
with Wax at Totoate, Jalisco. 


When the pot was burned the design came out in 
the natural color of the clay against a black, or 
sometimes a red field. The design was often made 
two layers deep by applying simple masses of red 
over the sizing before the impermanent paint of the 
design proper was put on. In the northwestern 
region of central Mexico now under consideration 


Plate XXXV. Stone Slab from an Ancient 
Sepulcher in the State of Guerrero. The face at 
the top apparently represents a monkey, but 
serpents have been introduced between the eyes 
and the eyebrows. The other highly convention- 
alized faces are probably those of serpents. 


186 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 187 


the negative painting technique is associated with 
conventionalized designs representing turtles (Fig. 
60). Another ware with designs in white is con- 
eerned with deriva- 
tives of the turtle 
motive. Then there 
are the remarkable 
copper bells in the 
form of turtles made 
by coiling, that have 
been found in nearby 
Michoacan. 

It is difficult to 
place time limits for 
the artistic styles 
that once existed in 
this northwestern re- 
gion. The archaic 
culture seems to Fig. 61. Jaguar Head on Disk- 
have lasted longer Shaped Stone. Salvador. — 
here than farther 
south; next followed the northern flow of Toltecan 
eulture which later receded and finally came a rather 
thin layer of Chichimecan or Aztecan culture. We 
may tentatively conclude that the forgotten cities of 
the Zacatecan subculture flourished after 1000 A. D. 
The question should be settled because of its connec- 
tion with the dating of Pueblo ruins farther north. 


Santa Lucia Cozumalhualpa. The zonal distribu- 
tion of rain forests in southern Mexico and Central 
America is especially important, as has been pointed 
out, in connection with the spread of Mayan-type 
civilizations. The Olmeca and Totonacs who were 
among the first to feel the cultural effects of the 


188 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Mayan ascendency occupied lands of heavy precipi- 
tation. The Zapotecan and Mixtecan areas were 
partly wet and partly dry. The Toltecs seem orig- 
inally to have been desert dwellers but they ex- 
tended their conquests over tribes living in the hu- 
mid tropics and made much of cacao, rubber, copal, 
etc., obtained by trade and tribute from such subject 
peoples. 

Along the Pacific coast below the Isthmus of Te- 
huantepec lies a rain belt containing ruined cities 
which flourished between 1000 to 1300 A. D., or on 
the historical level of the Toltec expansion. The 
sculptural art at these sites resembles the works 
attributed to the Olmees in Tabasco and Vera Cruz 
on the one hand and to the works of the Chorotega of 
lower Central America on the other. One such ruin 
is Quiengola near the modern city of Tehuantepec, 
another occupies a ridge above Tonala and there is 
a cluster of sites in the environs of Santa Lucia 
Cozumalhualpa in southern Guatemala, extending 
into western Salvador. 

Whether or not the sculptures of Santa Lucia 
Cozumalhualpa are to be credited to the Pipil, a 
Mexican tribe, is far from certain, but human sacri- 
fice and other Toltec religious ideas are plainly 
presented. We find here elaborate speech scrolls 
comparable to those of Xochicaleo and the Toltec 
work at Chichen Itza. Also there is evidence of 
the ceremonial importance of cacao in this region, 
the god of this economic plant being pictured in 
the form of a jaguar. 

A peculiar type of pottery centered in southern 
Guatemala and western Salvador from which region 
it was distributed far and wide by trade. Although 
a few examples of this ware are found at Copan it 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 189 


is clear from the designs that most of the pieces be- 
long to a time subsequent to the abandonment of 
this Mayan city. The ware has a semi-glaze which 
is the result of lead in the clay. Because paint 
could not be applied to this ware, the esthetic idea 
of shape was allowed to develop itself without 
hindrance. This pottery is now referred to as 
plumbate ware. 


The Chorotegan Culture. Passing south and east 
from the Mayan area we find remains of a rich and 
in Many ways peculiar art, consisting mostly of pot- 
tery and stone carvings, to which the name Chorote- 
gan is applied. This name means Driven-out Peo- 
ple. It was first used in connection with several 
tribes of the Chiapanec-Otomi stock dispossessed of 
a fertile area about Lake Nicaragua by the intru- 
sive Mexican-speaking Nicarao. The Chorotega 
were not, however, totally dispossessed since they 
continued to hold the Peninsula of Nicoya in Costa 
Rica as well as other pieces of territory. In an 
archeological sense the name Chorotegan fittingly 
can be extended to eastern parts of Costa Rica, 
Nicaragua, and Honduras, since the inhabitants of 
this stretch of land were also dispossessed some 
time before the coming of the Spaniards. Or per- 
haps they voluntarily migrated northward towards 
the end of the Toltec rule and are to be identified 
with the Otomi, Tlappaneca, and Mazateca of south- 
ern and central Mexico. The Tlappaneca and 
Otomi are definitely associated with introduction 
into Mexico of the peculiar cult of Xipe, God of the 
Flayed. This cult was clearly of southern origin 
and indeed still survived at Nicaragua at the time 
of the Spanish Conquest. The Mazateca were 


190 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


found in transit by Cortez, in the southern part of 
the Peninsula of Yucatan, living in palisaded vil- 
lages. Similar palisaded villages once flourished 
in Honduras. The wild South American tribes who 
replaced the eastern Chorotega exhibit a cultural 
non-conformity with the archeological remains of 
the region they now occupy. 


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Fig. 62. Front View and Profile View Serpent Heads in Chorote- 
gan Art. Although derived from Mayan models they have under- 
gone great changes and have become highly conventionalized. 


Close analysis shows that many of the decorative 
motives in Chorotegan art were developed from 
those of the Mayas. The serpent and the monkey 
furnish the majority of the designs that are surely 
Mayan but each of these 1s carried so far away from 
the original that only an expert can see the connec- 
tions. The arms and legs of the monkeys are 
lengthened and given an extra number of joints 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 191 


while the heads degenerate into circles. The 
tongues of the serpents are elongated and bent 
downward at the end. All the open spaces are 
treated with scallops or fringes of short lines. 


a RS A SR NE TS SE I RSS SOT RR PETES RE ET 


aCe 


ad 
Sa 


== Zim 


Fig. 63. Jaguar Design with Mayan Affinities associated with 
Figurines that still retain Archaic Characters. Costa Rica. 


Fig. 64. Jaguars from painted Nicoyan Vases. 


There is also in Chorotegan art a crocodilian 
motive that may be peculiar to the Isthmian region 
although it has Mayan affinities. The jaguar is also 
important in this ancient art. Among the most 
interesting vases are those that have a modeled 
head projecting from one side (jaguar, monkey, or 
bird) and two of the three legs of the vessel modified 


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THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 193 


into animal legs. On these elaborate vessels there 
are bands of painted decoration mostly concerned 
with the crocodile. 

The extremely elaborate metates (stones upon 
which maize was ground) from southern Nicaragua 
and northern Costa Rica probably were made by the 
producers of the peculiar pottery art already de- 
scribed. These were carved out of solid blocks of 
lava with stone tools. It is not unlikely that these 
elaborate metates were used as ceremonial seats 


IED o= 
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Fig. 65. Highly Conventionalized Jaguar Motive. The principal 
features of the head as well as the outline of the leg survive in highly 
modified form. From the southern end of Lake Nicaragua, 


since few of them show signs of use. The jaguar 
is perhaps the most common motive used in the 
decoration of these metates. The back is broad 
and slightly dished, the head projects from the cen- 
ter of one end and the tail swings in a curve from 
the other end to one of the feet. 

At Mercedes remarkable stone slabs were found 
during the excavations conducted by Mr. Minor C. 
Keith. These are now on exhibition in the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History. The sculptures 
in relief on these slabs are by all odds the finest 
from the Isthmian area. Human beings, crocodiles, 


194. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


monkeys and birds are all used to decorate these 
carefully and laboriously made pieces whose use is 
entirely unknown. Statues in the full round have 
also been unearthed in quantity at Mercedes which 


@ © © 
Ens) Ses] EAs 


Fig. 66. Simple Crocodile Figures in Red Lines on Dishes from 
Mercedes, Costa Rica. 


DY, 


A ° 


rey 


Fig. 67. Pancls containing Crocodiles painted in White Lines on 
Large Tripod Bowls from Mercedes, Costa Rica. 


Fig. 68. Simplified Crocodile Heads in the Yellow Line Ware of 
Mercedes, Costa Rica. 


gives every evidence of having been a large city 
with a long career. 

We may be reasonably sure that the stone slabs 
date from a fairly late epoch because an undoubted 
‘‘Chaemool’”’ exhibiting the same style of carving 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 195 


has been discovered here. The ‘‘Chacmool,’’ a half 
reclining figure with the knees drawn up, the body 
supported in part upon the elbows and a bowl for 
incense or other offerings in the pit of the stomach, 
gets its fanciful name from Le Plongeon who dis- 
covered the original at Chichen Itza. But the un- 
mistakable sculptures of this type were apparently 
developed by the highland tribes and the cult was 
introduced into northern Yucatan during the period 
of Mexican influence. In addition to Chichen Itza 
examples have been found at Cempoalan, the his- 
toric Totonacan capital near Vera Cruz, at Texcoco, 
in the Valley of Mexico, at Jhuatzio in the Tarascan 
region, as well as at Chalchuapa far to the southeast 
in Salvador. All of these occurrences indicate a 
late Toltecan horizon for its distribution. 


Isthmian Gold Work. Metal-working was un- 
known to the Mayas of the First Empire, but is 
abundantly illustrated in cities of the Second Em- 
pire, especially Chichen Itza where the pieces are 
predominantly of Costa Rican and Colombian manu- 
facture evidently secured in trade. We are there- 
fore justified in concluding that the splendid Isth- 
mian gold work came into being after 630 A. D. and 
was typically developed by 1200 A. D. The ‘‘wire 
technique,’’ essentially a cast rather than a soldered 
filigree, characterized metal working as far south 
as southern Colombia and is also the dominant mode 
in Mexico. In addition to plain and hollow casting, 
two kinds of gold plating were carried to perfection 
by the ancient metal workers: one a heavy plating 
over copper and the other a thin gilding. The man- 
ner in which this plating was done is still uncertain. 
It has been suggested that the molds were lined with 


Plate XXXVII. (a) The Gold Work of the Ancient Mexicans 
excited the Wonder of the Spanish Conquerors. Comparatively 
few examples, however, have come down to us; (b) Many Orna- 
ments of Gold are found in the Graves of Costa Rica and Panama. 
The Keith Collection contains a very fine series of these pieces 
illustrating all the forms as well as the technical processes, 


196 


THE MIDDLE CIVILIZATIONS 197 


leaf gold or sprinkled with gold dust before the 
baser copper was poured in. Also acids are said 
to have been used to dissolve out copper from the 
surfaces. Many ornaments are of pure beaten gold 
and have designs in repoussé. 


Fig. 69. Conventional Crocodiles from Costa Rica and Panama. 


Chttttttttdltdld/ 


The gold objects are found in stone box graves 
along with pottery and stone carvings. Gold is 
taken from only a small percentage of the graves, 
probably those of chiefs. A systematic rifling of 
the ancient cemeteries has been going on since the 
arrival of the Spaniards, but the finds have mostly 
been thrown into the melting pot. The burial 
places are sometimes marked by low platforms built 
over a group of graves. An iron rod, giving forth 
a hollow sound when the stone cysts are struck, is 
used by the searchers. Human bones are found in 


198 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


these graves, but seldom in a state of good preserva- 
tion. 

Mr. Minor C. Keith’s collection of gold work 
from Costa Rica and Panama is unexcelled and 
illustrates the range of technical processes as well 
as of ornamental forms. Human forms are repre- 
sented with peculiar headdresses and with various 
objects carried in the hands and often they are 
joined in pairs. Many ef the most beautiful amu- 
lets are frogs arranged either singly or in groups 
of two or three. These figures are all provided 
with a ring on the under side for suspension. 
Lizards, turtles, and crocodiles are frequently mod- 
eled as well as clam shells, crabs, and monkeys. 
But perhaps the most frequent amulets are those 
that picture birds with outspread wings among 
which may be recognized vultures, harpy eagles, 
gulls, man-of-war birds, and parrots. The larger 
and more elaborate pieces of gold work cast con- 
siderable light on the ancient religion of the natives 
since beast gods are figured in half human form. 
Bells of copper and gold were much used in gala 
dress and were doubtless an object of trade with 
the tribes farther north. 


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Plate XXXVIII. A Page from the Tribute Roll of Moctezuma, 
showing the Annual Tribute of the Eleven Towns pictured at the 
Bottom and Right. The tribute consisted of: (a) Two strings of 
jade beads; (b) Twenty gourd dishes of gold dust; (c) A royal 
headdress; (d) Eight hundred bunches of feathers; (e) Forty bags 
of cochineal dye; (f-g) Warrior’s costumes; (h) Four hundred and 
two blankets of this pattern; (i) Four hundred blankets; (j) Four 
hundred and four blankets; (7) Four hundred blankets. The towns 
are: (1) Coaxalahuacan; (2) Texopan; (3) Tamozolapan; (4) Yan- 
euitlan; (5) Tezuzcululan; (6) Nochistlan; (7) Xaltepec; (8) Tam- 
azolan; (9) Mictlan (Mitla); (10) Coaxomuleu; (11) Cuicatlan, in 
the State of Oaxaca. 


200 


CHapTer LV 


THE AZTECS 


highlands of Mexico when Cortez marched 

with his small army to conquer New Spain. 
The horrible sacrifices that they made to their gods 
and the wealth and barbaric splendor of their rulers 
have often been described. But their history in 
point of time covered short space and their art and 
religion was based in a large measure on achieve- 
ments of the nations that had preceded them. 


are Aztees were the dominant nation on the 


Mayas and Aztecs compared to Greeks and Ro- 
mans. A remarkably close analogy may be drawn 
between the Mayas and Aztecs in the New World 
and the Greeks and Romans in the Old, as regards 
character, achievements, and relations one to the 
other. The Mayas, like the Greeks, were an artistic 
and intellectual people who developed sculpture, 
painting, architecture, astronomy, and other arts 
and sciences to a high plane. Politically, both were 
divided into communities or states that bickered 
and quarreled. There were temporary leagues be- 
tween certain cities, but real unity only against a 
common enemy. Culturally, both were one people, 
in spite of dialectic differences, for the warring fac- 
tions were bound together by a common religion and 
a common thought. To be sure the religion of the 
Mayas was much more barbaric than that of the 
Greeks but in each case the subject matter was ide- 
alized and beautified in art. 

The Aztecs, like the Romans, were a brusque and 

201 


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mere 


Plate XXXIX. Page from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis 


showing a Native Manuscript with Explication by the Spaniards. 
The death of Chimalpopoca and the election of his successor, 
Itzcouatl, is recorded, as well as the capture of Atzcapotzalco. 


202 


D 


THE AZTECS 203 


warlike people who built upon the ruins of an earlier 
civilization that fell before the force of their arms 
and who made their most notable contributions to 
organization and government. The Toltecs stand 
just beyond the foreline of Aztecan history and may 
fitly be compared to the Etruscans. They were the 
possessors of a culture derived in part from their 
brilhant contemporaries that was magnified to true 
greatness by their ruder successors. 


The Chichimecas. The term Chichimecas was ap- 
plied by the more civilized tribes of the Mexican 
highlands to those nomads outside the pale who 
dressed in skins and hunted with the bow and arrow. 
Some of these wandering groups spoke Nahuan di- 
alects, but the term was also applied to the Otomis 
who spoke a distinct language. Possibly through 
having been reduced in war certain of these wander- 
ing groups were drawn into civilization and when 
the Toltecan cities began to decline, they advanced 
to considerable power and prestige. In fact, the 
Aztecs may be considered as originally Chichime- 
ean, along with the people of Texcoco. In later 
times, these city-broken nomads looked back with 
considerable pride on their lowly origin. The early 
life in the open is pictured interestingly in several 
documents including the Map of Tlotzin and the 
Map of Quinatzin. 

We have already seen how the splendid culture 
of the Toltecan cities broke down under the weight 
of civil war about 1220 A. D. To be sure, Cholula 
appears to have kept alive the flame of Toltecan re- 
ligion and art up to the advent of the Spaniards. 
Atzeapotzaleco, Colhuacan, and other towns near the 
lakes that had been established during the Toltecan 


204 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


period were able to hold their own for a time against 
the newer order. 

Xolotl, founder of the dynasty of Texeoco, makes 
his first appearance in the Valley of Mexico in 1225, 
five years after the dispersion of the Toltecs, ac- 
cording to the Codex Xolotl. He viewed the aban- 
doned cities but neither he nor his immediate suc- 
cessors chose to lead a sedentary life. The first 
date appears too early because it seems unlikely 
that the reigns of Xolotl and his son actually cov- 
ered ninety years. The foundation of Texcoco took 
place in the reign of Techotlala and Ixtlilxochitl, 
his son, fell a victim to the murderous policy of 
Tezozomoc, the famous tyrant of Atzcapotzalco. 
Nezahualeoyotl, who regained the throne in 1431 
was a great poet, philosopher, and law maker. ‘The 
rulers of Texcoco were as follows :— 


THE DYNASTY OF TEXCOCO 


NOMADIC CHIEFTAINS 


Xolotl 1225-1284 
Nopalli 1284-1315 
Tlotzin 1315-1324 
Quinatzin 1324-1357 


SEDENTARY CHIEFTAINS 


Techotlala 1357-1409 
Ixtlilxochitl 1409-1418 
(Interregnum ) 1418-1431 
Nezahualeoyotl 1431-1472 
Nezahualpilli 1472-1515 
Cacama 1515-1520 


Aztecan History. The history of the Aztecs has a 
mythological preamble in common with other na- 
tions of Mexico. The Chicomoztoe or Seven Caves 
must not be considered historical but simply man’s 


THE AZTECS 205 


place of emergence from the underworld. The gen- 
eral conception of an existence within the earth that 
preceded the existence upon the earth is found very 
widely among North American Indians. It is like- 
wise impossible to locate the Island of Aztlan, that 
served, according to several codices, as the starting 
place of the Mexican migration. The northern ori- 
ein for the Aztecan tribe to which so much attention 
has been paid need not have been far from the Val- 
ley of Mexico, since in their entire recorded pere- 
erination they hardly traveled eighty miles. 

Owing to the ineffectiveness of the Mexican time 
count Aztecan chronology is far from fixed. The 
year was known by the day with which it began and 
as this day ran the permutation of four names and 
thirteen numbers a cycle was fifty-two years in 
length. No method of keeping the cycles in their 
proper order seems to have been devised except the 
laborious one of putting down every year in se- 
quence whether or not an event occurred in it. Ac- 
cording to different authorities the year 1 Stone 
which begins the historical account in the Aubin 
Codex was 648, 1064, or 1168 in the European 
calendar, each date differing from the others by 
multiples of fifty-two years. The last base, 1168, 
is correct; this being the epoch of the Tolteec Era 
established by Quetzalcoatl. 

The wandering tribes, among which may be men- 
tioned the Chalca, Xochimilea, Tlahuica, Huexot- 
zinca, Tepaneca, and Azteca, pushed their way into 
the region of the lakes and were allowed to live in 
less desirable locations as vassals to the established 
tribes. The ‘‘peregrinations’’ relate the succession 
of stops and the length of each stop. The Aztecs 
themselves made twenty or more stops lasting from 


902 
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JOPUN PoTINd Wooq OAVT] O} SUOIS oANJd[NdS STY} PUB SOUT} [BIOAOS PoSre[WO sem pruBIAG Jal oy} Fey} Pearoys 
suorpeavoxo owes oy, “AJIQ Ootxopy ‘prweitg yeorg ‘opvajsnteg JO Wo}og ye pwoH yuodiog “TX 41d 


pe 


e 


© 
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a 
é 
= 
& 
é 


THE AZTECS 207 


two to twenty years. Finally, about 1325, they 
reached Chapultepec and for a number of years 
lived in comparative peace and quiet. Their bad 
manners and growing power excited the enmity of 
several nearby towns and in 1351 the 
Aztecs, under their chieftain Huitzili- 
huitl, were worsted in a fierce battle. 
Remnants of the tribe, including 
Huitzilihuitl and his daughter, sought 
the protection of Cozcoztli, king of 
Colhuacan. They soon were able to 
repay his support in a war with 
Xochimileo. The first actual settle- 
ment on the site of the future Tenoch- 
titlan was made in 1364 and in 1376 
Acamapictli, a noble allied to the 


royal house of Colhuacan, was elected eee Pic: 
to be the first war chief of the new  tographic Ree- 
city. ord of fighting 


One of the first improvements un- ™¢a" the Springs 
dertaken by the new city was in the The aie 
matter of water supply. Rights were  gyasshopper.’’ 
secured to the famous spring of Cha- Aubin Codex. 
pultepee, an important gain because 
the brackish waters of the lake were not fit to drink. 
A double water main of terra cotta was laid from 
the springs to the town. New land was made, prob- 
ably after the manner still to be seen in the famous 
floating gardens of Xochimilco by throwing the soil 
from the bed of the shallow lake into enclosed areas 
of wattle work. Gradually a Venice-like city, trav- 
ersed by canals and admirably protected from at- 
tack, rose from the lake. At the coming of the 
Spaniards there were three causeways leading to 
the shores of the lake and each of these was pro- 


208 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


tected by drawbridges. There was a city wall upon 
which were lighthouses for the guidance of home- 
coming fishermen. There were palaces and market 
places and a great central plaza called the Tecpan, 
where were situated the principal temples. 

The Spaniards destroyed the ancient city, block- 
ing up the canals with the débris of temples, and 
building the new City of Mexico over the leveled 
ruins. Ancient relics are brought to light wherever 
excavations are made. In 1900 many sculptures 
and ceremonial objects were uncovered in Escealeri- 
llas street near the Cathedral. Recently a building 
near the National Museum was torn down for re- 
placement and in digging for new foundations part 
of the base of the great pyramid was found. This 
had been enlarged several times, as could be seen 
by the stairways successively buried under new 
walls. At the bottom of the balustrade of one stair- 
way a great serpent head of stone was found in its 
original position (Plate XL). 

The Aztecs count their history as a great people 
from their first war chief Acamapichtli who com- 
menced his rule in 1376 (Codex Aubin). The names 
and the order of the succeeding war chiefs are the 
same in several records, but the dates are found to 
vary slightly. 


Acamapichtli 1376-1396 
Huitzilihuitl 1396-1417 
Chimalpopoca 1417-1427 
Itzcouatl 1427-1440 
Moctezuma I 1440-1469 
Axayacatl 1469-1482 
Tizo¢ 1482-1486 
Ahuitzotl 1486-1502 
Moctezuma IIL 1502-1520 
Cuitlahua 1520 

Cuauhtemoe 1520-1521 


THE AZTECS 209 


After throwing off the yoke of their early over- 
lords, the Tepanecas, by the subjection of Atzca- 
potzaleo at the beginning of the brilliant reign of 
Itzeouatl, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan entered into a 
three-cornered league with Texcoco and Tlacopan 
(Tacuba). This was an offensive and defensive al- 
lianece with an equal division of the spoils of war. 
Soon the united power of these three cities dom- 
inated the Valley of Mexico and began to be felt 
across the mountains on every side. Tenochtitlan 
eradually assumed the commanding position in the 
league, and although Texcoco continued to be an 
important center the third member was apparently 
much reduced. The great votive stone of Tizoc re- 
cords some of the earlier conquests of the Aztecs. 
At the arrival of Cortez only a few important cities 
such as Tlaxcala retained their independence. But 
the crest of power had then been passed and it 
seems pretty certain that the remarkable city in the 
lake would in time have suffered the fate of other 
self-constituted capitals both in the Old World and 
the New. 


Social Organization. Spanish historians often 
liken Tenochtitlan to the seat of an empire and 
speak of the ruler as one who had the power of an 
absolute monarch while other and more recent writ- 
ers have declared that the tribal organization of the 
Aztecs was essentially democratic. The truth 
doubtless lies between these extremes. The people 
were warlike by nature and all men, except a few 
of the priesthood, were soldiers. Honors depended 
largely upon success in war and warriors were ar- 
ranged in ranks according to their deeds. The 
common warriors formed one rank and next came 


210 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


those who had distinguished themselves by definite 
achievements which gave the right to wear certain 
articles of dress or to bear certain titles. The 
chiefs were elected for an indefinite term of office 
from the most distinguished fighters and could be 
removed for cause. 

But while the offices of state were elective there 
was, nevertheless, a tendency to choose from certain 
powerful families and at least the foundation of an 
aristocratic policy. A chief was succeeded by his 
son or brother except when these candidates were 
manifestly unfit. In the actual succession of the 
great war chiefs of Tenochtitlan, a peculiar system 
seems to have been followed in that the candidates 
from the older generation were ordinarily ex- 
hausted before the next lower generation became 
eligible. Thus MHuitzilihuitl, Chimalpopoca, and 
Itzcouatl were all sons of Acamapichtli, and the 
last and greatest was born of a slave mother. Then 
followed Moctezuma Ilhuicamina I, the son of Hu- 
itzilihuitl. This chief had no male heirs but the 
children of his daughter ruled in order: Axayacatl, 
Tizoe, and Ahuitzotl. Moctezuma II was the son 
of the first of these as was Cuitlahua, while Cuauh- 
temoe, the last Aztee ruler, was the son of Ahuitzotl. 
This peculiar succession was not in vogue in Tex- 
coco, where son succeeded father and the lawful 
wife was chosen from the royalty of Tenochtitlan. 
In the various annals, the genealogies are often 
indicated and the evidence that aristocracies existed 
is too strong to be overthrown. There are even 
cases of queens who succeeded to the chief power 
after the death of the royal husband. 

It is extremely doubtful whether the Aztecs ever 
had what might be called clans. We have seen that 


THE AZTECS PAA 


there were originally eight closely related tribes 
constituting the Mexica or Mexici nation. The 
Aztecs themselves are said to have been divided into 
seven groups that were first reduced to four or five 
and then increased to about twenty. It is not clear 
that these were exogamic kinship groups. They 
were probably military societies taking into their 
membership all the men of the tribe. The name 
Calpolli, or ‘‘great house,’’ which was applied to 
them seems to have referred to a sort of barracks 
or general meeting place in each ward or division 
of the city where arms and trophies were kept and 
the youth educated in the art of war. The title in 
land was held by the calpolls and the right of use 
distributed among the heads of families who held 
possession only so long .as the land was worked. 
Each calpolli seems to have had a certain autonomy 
in governmental matters as well as a local religious 
organization. It is curious to find in Salvador, far 
to the south, the word calpollt applied to the plat- 
form mounds that surround courts in the ancient 
ruins. This use of the word may indicate that the 
‘‘oreat houses”’ of the different societies were ordi- 
narily the principal buildings of the city and that 
they were used for civil, military, and religious 
purposes. 

In forming judgment on the fundamentals of 
social organization among the Aztecs we must re- 
member that no clear case of kinship clans has been 
reported south of the area of the United States. 
Among the Cakchiquels, a Mayan tribe of the Guate- 
malan highlands, two royal houses are reported 
from which the ruling chief was alternately drawn. 
The Zotzils have been explained as a bat clan be- 
cause their name is associated with the word for 


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IMAL 


Plate XLI. Sahagun’s Plan of the Tecpan in Mexico City. After 
Seler. Among the details shown are: (a) The two great temples ; 
(b) The Quauhaicalli or eagle bowl; (¢) One of the Callimecatl, or 
priest houses; (e) An eagle house or warriors’ shrine; (f) The Te- 
otlachtli or ball court of the gods; (g) Tzompantli or skull rack; 
(h) The temple of Xipi; (i) The Temalacatl or Gladiator Stone; 
(k) The Colhuacan Teocalli or temple of Colhuacan; (l-m) The 
gods 5 Lizard and 5 House respectively; (nm) Dance courts; (0) 
Coatenamitl or Serpent Wall, so called because it was decorated 
with heads of serpents. 


212 


THE AZTECS AT 


bat and because a bat god appears to have been their 
patron deity. The Mazatecas and Mixtecas, Deer 
people and Cloud people, also have clanlike names 
but in all cases these are designations of entire 
tribes, not of subdivisions of tribes. 

Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters and 
each quarter subdivided into a number of wards. 
An under chief was elected from each of the sub- 
divisions which are doubtless to be identified with 
the calpolli, and an over chief from each of the four 
quarters. Above these stood the war chief of the 
entire tribe who was likewise elected, but within the 
limits of a fixed aristocracy. A second great chief, 
who seems to have been a peace officer with some 
important relation to the priesthood, was nominally 
equal to the war chief, but practically much less 
powerful. The real center of the home government 
was a council made up of all the chiefs. In time of 
war the war chief was in supreme command and 
eould either delegate his rights or act in person. 
Just how much the priesthood intervened in govern- 
mental affairs cannot be definitely put in words, but 
their power was doubtless great. Certain lands 
were cultivated in common for the officers of church 
and state and much of the tribute from conquered 
provinces was devoted to their needs. 


The Tecpan or Temple Enclosure. The ceremo- 
nial center of Tenochtitlan has been transformed 
into the civic center of Mexico City. The Cathe- 
dral, the National Palace, and the Zocolo, or Plaza 
Major, mark the site where once stood the famous 
Tecpan or temple enclosure. Within the serpent 
walls, according to Sahagun, there were twenty-five 
temple pyramids, five oratories, sundry fasting 


Plate XLII. The Calendar Stone of the Aztecs. This great stone 
represents the disk of the sun and the history of the world. It may 
be analyzed as follows, reading outward from the center. 

Central or cosmogonic portion: The day sign 4 Olin with details 
in the arms representing four epochs of the world; with the face of 
the sun god in the center and minor hieroglyphs that may represent 
the four directions just outside the Olin symbol, 

Band of day signs beginning at the top and reading towards 
the left. 

Bands of conventional rays of the sun and other details such as 
the embellishment of the sun with turquoise and eagle feathers. 

The outer circle of two great reptiles that may indicate the 
universe. 

Invisible edge of the disk bears representations of Itzpapalotl, 
the obsidian butterfly which is symbolical of the heavens. 


214 


THE AZTECS 215 


houses, four bowl-shaped stones, one disk-shaped 
stone, a great stepped altar, a ‘‘star column,’’ seven 
skull racks, two ball courts, two enclosed areas, a 
well, three bathing places, two cellar-like rooms, a 
dancing place, nine priest houses, a prison for the 
gods of conquered nations, arsenals, work places, 
ete. <A native plan of the Tecpan, much simplified, 
occurs in the Sahagun manuscript. The great pyra- 
mid rose in several terraces and was surmounted by 
two temples each three stories in height, one dedi- 
eated to Huitzilopochtli and the other to Tlaloce. 
Kach temple contained an image of the god to which 
it was dedicated and a sacrificial altar. The walls 
were encrusted with blood of human victims whose 
hearts, still beating, had been torn out for divine 
food and whose bodies had been rolled down the 
steep flight of temple stairs. The foundations for 
the great pyramids were laid in 1447 by Moctezuma 
I, the pyramids were completed in 1485 while Tizoe 
was war chief and the final dedication ceremonies 
were held in 1487. 

Several very interesting large sculptures and 
many minor objects have been unearthed on the site 
of the Tecpan. In 1790 and 1791 were found three 
famous monoliths, the Calendar Stone, the Stone of 
Tizoe (Sacrificial Stone), and the Statue of Coat- 
licue. Since 1897 many fine pieces of pottery and 
several sculptures have been excavated near the 
Cathedral and placed in the Museo Nacional. 


The Calendar Stone. The great sculptured monu- 
ment known as the Calendar Stone or Stone of the 
Sun, is the most valuable object that has come down 
intact from the time of the Aztecs. It is a single 
piece of porphyry, irregular except for the sculp- 


916 


‘UOI}VU UVIINYLL]Y, 24} FO [vyidvo ‘ovny 
-euyneng) Ajiedoid oom 10 vovavusany jo ysenbuo0d ay} Spiodel sunydjnos ayy, “1ouuRg 
IvM & pue ‘sMOIIV IBM FO o[puNnq vw ‘PyeTYys B SMOYS BovABvUIEND JO AYTD OY} UL Jopynoq *B 
uodn poarvd oinjdjnos ued0jzV SIQy, “Bovavudeng 38 9U0}9 PPG ey, “TLTITX 2}e[d 


THE AZTECS AW 


tured face. It now weighs over twenty tons and it 
is estimated that the original weight was over twice 
as much. The sculptured disk is about twelve feet 
in diameter. This great stone was transported by 
men over many miles of marshy lake bottom before 
it could be placed in position in front of the Temple 
of the Sun in the temple enclosure that has just 
been described. The stone was doubtless thrown 
down from its original position by the soldiers of 
Cortez and may have been lost to sight. We know, 
however, that it was exposed to view about 1560 and 
was then buried by order of the archbishop of Mex- 
ico City lest its presence should cause the Indians 
to revert to their original pagan beliefs. It was re- 
discovered in 1790 and was afterwards built into the 
facade of the Cathedral where it remained until 
1885, when it was removed to the nearby museum. 

The Calendar Stone is not only a symbol of the 
sun’s face marked with the divisions of the year 
but it is a record of the cosmogonic myth of the 
Aztees and the creations and destructions of the 
world. In the center is the face of the sun god, 
Tonatiuh, enclosed in the middle of the symbol 
ealled Olin. Tonatiuh is often represented by a 
much simpler sign of a circle with four or more 
subdivisions resembling those of a compass which 
are intended to represent the rays of the sun. Olin 
is one of the day signs and means movement, or per- 
haps earthquake. It has also been explained as a 
graphic representation of the apparent course of 
the sun during the year. The history of the world, 
according to the Aztecan myth, is divided into five 
suns or ages, four of which refer to the past and 
one to the present. The present sun is called Olin 
Tonatiuh because it is destined to be destroyed by 


218 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


an earthquake. The day signs of the four previous 
suns are represented in the rectangular projections 
of the central Olin symbol beginning at the upper 
right hand corner and proceeding to the left. They 
are 4Ocelotl (jaguar) ; 4 Ehecatl (wind) ; 4 Quauhtli 
(rain) ; 4 Atl (water), and they refer to destruction, 
first, by jaguars, second, by a hurricane, third, by a 
volcanic rain of fire, fourth, by a flood. Itis claimed 
by some that the year 13 Acatl (reed) recorded at 
the top of the monument between the reptile tails 
refers to the first year of the present sun. The fifth 
sun will end with the day 4 Olin, that is expressed in 
the central symbol already described. For this rea- 
son a fast was held on each recurrence of this day. 
Outside of the Olin symbol but between its arms are 
four hieroglyphs of uncertain meaning. Next to 
this area dealing with the great ages of the world 
comes a band of the twenty day signs of the Aztecan 
month. Outside of this band are several others 
which probably represent in a conventionalized 
manner the rays of the sun and the turquoise and 
eagle feathers with which the sun disk was believed 
to be decorated. Finally, outside of all, are two 
plumed monsters meeting face to face at the bottom 
of the disk. In each reptile face is seen a human 
face in profile. These reptiles are probably to be 
identified as the Xiuhcoatl or Fire Serpents. 

The newly discovered National Stone pictures the 
Calendar Stone in vertical position on a mound and 
at the head of a flight of steps. The dates on the 
side of the stairway are 1 Tochtli and 2 Acatl, 1506 
and 1507, indicating that the Calendar Stone was 
dedicated in connection with the New Fire Cere- 
mony. The design on the back of this new-found 
monument pictures the eagle on the cactus, sym- 


THE AZTECS 219 


bolic of the founding of Tenochtitlan. Other sculp- 
tures adorn the sides, the top, and the bottom of the 
stone. 


Stone of Tizoc. The Sacrificial Stone or Stone of 
Tizoe is believed to have been carved by order of 
Tizoe, the war chief who ruled from 1482-1486, as 
a memorial offering to Mexican arms on the comple- 
tion of the great temple 
to the Mexican God of 
War. The stone was a 
quauhaicalli, or ‘‘eagile 
bowl.’?’ This name was 
given to large bowls 
which were used to hold 
the blood and the heart 
of human victims sacri- 
ficed to the gods. The 
same name was. ex- 
tended to the large 
drum-shaped stone, Fig. 71. Details from the 
under consideration, Stone of Tizoc: a, Huitzilopochtli, 
which has a pit in the Aztee War God; b, Figures repre- 


: senting a captured town; c, Name 
center and a sort of of the captured town (Tuxpan, 


canal running from the place of the rabbit). 
center to one side which 
may have been intended to drain off the blood. Hu- 
man sacrifice actually took place on this stone but it 
is pretty certain that it was not one of the temala- 
catl or ‘‘gladiator stones’’ on which were staged 
mortal combats as ceremonies. According to de- 
seription the gladiator stones were pierced by a 
hole in the center so that one or more captives could 
be bound fast by a rope. 

On the top of the Stone of Tizoc is a representa- 


Plate XLIV. The newly discovered ‘‘ National Stone’? of Mexico. 
The front view shows the Calendar Stone in position and the year 
signs 1 Rabbit and 2 Reed (1506 and 1507 A. D. ). The sculpture on 
the back is an eagle on a cactus, recording the foundation of Mexico 
City (Tenochtitlan). On all the other surfaces priests and religious 
symbols are drawn. 


220 


THE AZTECS RAT 


tion of Tonatiuh, or the sun’s disk, much less com- 
plex than that which we have seen on the Calendar 
Stone but with many similar parts. On the sides of 
the stone are fifteen groups of figures, each group 
representing a conqueror and his captive. The vic- 
torious soldier appears each time in the guise of the 
war god, Huitzilopochtli, or his wizard brother Tez- 
eatlipoca. The left foot of the figure ends in two 
seroll-like objects that may represent the humming 
bird feathers that formed the left foot of Huitzilo- 
pochth. But Tezcatlipoca also had a deformed 
foot. Moreover, on the side of the headdress is a 
disk with a flame-shaped object coming out of it. 
This may represent the smoking mirror of Tezcatli- 
poca. The captive wears costumes that change 
slightly from one figure to the next. Over the head 
of the captive in each instance is the hieroglyph of 
a captured town or district. 

Nearly all the place name hieroglyphs have been 
deciphered. The list is interesting historically be- 
cause it gives the principal conquests up to the reign 
of Tizoc. Starting at the side directly across the 
stone from the groove or drain we see that the figure 
of the victor has behind his head a hieroglyph that 
represents a leg. This is the hieroglyph of Tizoc 
and the victim in this case represents the district of 
Matlatzinco in the Valley of Toluca. This district 
was brought under subjection by Tizoc himself. 
Among the other conquered cities are such well- 
known ones as Chaleo, Xochimilco, and Colhuacan 
in the vicinity of Lake Texcoco and Ahuilizapan 
(Orizaba) and Tuxpan that are more distant. 


Coatlicue. The famous statue of the Earth God- 
dess, Coatlicue, ‘‘the goddess with the serpent 


Yon na 
USS Dee 
€ OR Rew, P Kee 
AS Saag 
, fi 1" 


Plate XLV. Monstrous Sculpture representing Coatlicue, 
the Serpent-Skirted Goddess, who was regarded as the Mother 
of the Gods. 


222 


THE AZTECS 220 


skirt,’? is one of the most striking examples of 
barbaric imagination. The name Teoyamiqui is 
often given to this uncouth figure, but the identifica- 
tion is faulty. Like the other great sculptures we 
have just examined, it doubtless occupied an im- 
portant place in the great ceremonial center of 
Tenochtitlan, but no ancient reference to it is extant. 
This goddess is reported to have been the mother 
of the gods. 


Fig. 72. Detail showing the Construction of the Face of Coat- 
licue from Two Serpent Heads meeting End to End. 


The statue may be described as follows: The feet 
are furnished with claws. The skirt is a writhing 
mass of braided rattlesnakes. The arms are dou- 
bled up and the hands are snake heads on a level 
with the shoulders. Around the neck and hanging 
down over the breast is a necklace of alternating 
hands and hearts with a death’s head pendant. The 
head of this monstrous woman is the same on front 
and back and is formed of two serpent heads that 
meet face to face. The forked tongue and the four 
downward pointing fangs belong half and half to 
each of the two profile faces. 


Mexican Writing. The means of record em- 
ployed in Mexican codices are in part pictographic 
and in part hieroglyphic. The sequence of the his- 
torical events in these native manuscripts is often 


224 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


indicated by a line of footprints leading from one 
place or scene of action to another. Historical rec- 
ords of this type resemble old-fashioned maps and 
some are actually called maps. The names of towns 
in these documents are represented by true hiero- 
elyphs and often the character of the country is 


SNe Oz 
ie) <Q), 


Fig. 73. Hieroglyphs of Precious Materials: left to right, gold; 
turquoise; mosaic of precious stones; chalchihuitl, or jade; mirror of 
obsidian. 


indicated by pictures of typical vegetation, such as 
maguey plants for the highlands and palms for the 
lowlands. The day or the year in which took place 
the foundation of the town or whatever event is 
intended to be recorded is usually placed in con- 
junction with the hieroglyph or picture. Conquest 
is indicated by a place name hieroglyph with a spear 


on 


tlen from tlantli, teeth mix from miztla, cloud 
cal from calli, house 


Fig. 74. Phonetic Elements derived from Pictures and used in 
Mexican Place Name Hieroglyphs. 


thrust into it or by a temple on fire, while warfare is 
a shield and bundle of lances encircled by footprints. 

A few examples of Nahuan hieroglyphs will now 
be given to illustrate this interesting method of 
writing. It must be remembered that there is 
nothing in the nature of a connected narrative. 


THE AZTECS 220 


The hieroglyphs or word pictures are limited to 
geographical and personal names, including the 
names of gods, to months, days, numbers, objects of 
commerce and a few objects or ideas of ceremonial 
import. Some of the signs are in no degree re- 
alistic and have a definite meaning by common con- 
sent alone, such as the symbol for gold (Fig. 73). 
Others are abbreviated and conventionalized pic- 


BA 


Caltepec Itztepec Atepec Pantepec 
Miztlan Itztlan Petlatlan Tecalco 


Fig. 75. Aztecan Place Names. 


tures of objects. Thus the head of a god or of an 
animal frequently appears as the sign of the whole. 
But the most important and interesting word signs 
are rebuses in which separate syllables or groups of 
syllables are represented by more or less conven- 
tionalized pictures. The whole word picture is a 
combination of syllable pictures which indicate 
phonetically the word as a whole. Very often ad- 
vantage is taken of puns on whole or partial words, 
while color and position are also employed to indi- 
eate sounds and syllables. 


226 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


In Fig. 74 are given a few of the more common 
syllable pictures. The name of the object repre- 
sented is cut down by the elimination of tl, Ii, ete., 


Fig. 76. Aztecan Day Signs. 


Cipactli Ehecatl Calla Cuezpallin Coatl 
Crocodile Wind House Lizard Snake 
Miquiztli Mazatl Tochtli All Itzcuintli 
Death Deer Rabbit Water Dog 
Ozomatli Malinallt Acatl Ocelotl Quauhtli 
Monkey Herb Reed Jaguar Eagle 
Cozcaquauhtli Olin Tecpatl Quiahiutl Xochitl 
Vulture Movement Stone Rain Flower 


5 "le 0 8 @ 


Fig. 77. Variant Forms of Aztecan Day Signs: a, acatl, arrow; 
b, mazatl, deer foot; c, malinalli, jaw bone; d, itzcuintli, dog’s ear; 
e, ozomatli, monkey’s ear; f, ocelotl, jaguar’s ear. 


THE AZTECS ape 


that form the nominal endings. Thus, the picture 
of water, atl, becomes the sign for the sound a, that 
of stone tetl is cut down to the syllable te. Several 
of these syllable pictures are combined to represent 
a whole word. 


TJ] 


‘I 


\ ULLAL 
i Lt LP ttn, 


vw, 


<> 


2. 


944479 
a) BAAN 


Fig. 78. Aztecan Numbers and Objects of Commerce: a, 1; BD, 
20; c, 400; d, 8,000; e, ten faces carved from precious stone; f, 
twenty bags of cochineal dye; g, one hundred bales of cocoa; h, four 
hundred bales of cotton; %, four hundred jars of honey of tuna; J, 
eight thousand leaf bundles of copal gum; k, twenty baskets each 
containing sixteen hundred ground cacao nibs; J, four hundred and 
two blankets. 


The hieroglyphs of the twenty days of the month 
(see Fig. 76) are frequently represented, but those 
of the eighteen months are not nearly so well known. 
As for the gods, the faces are usually pictured, espe- 
cially when these are grotesque, but sometimes de- 
tails of dress or an object connected with a special 
ceremony is sufficient to recall the divinity. The 
Mexican system of numbers was based on twenties. 


un 
Ns sani 
les g agnt naGan ayn Ot fb my 
Brees y yp, poly, 


bar 
oN 2S 


ag 


Fe 
gt 


Payments a 
fafa 


Plate XLVI. Page from the Tonalamat! Section of the Codex 
Borbonicus. The thirteen days run along the bottom of the page 
and up the right side of the large division. The period covered 
is one-twentieth of the Tonalamatl of 260 days. At the left of 
each day is seen one of the nine Lords of the Night, so-called, in 
orderly succession. In the divisions above or to the left of the 
days are the thirteen gods of the Hours of the Day in connection 
with the Thirteen Birds. The patron goddess of this division of 
the Tonalamatl is Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly. The other 
pictures relate mostly to mythological instances and the details 
of ceremonies. For instance, the broken tree represents Tamoan- 
chan, a legendary site, and the sacrifice of twenty birds is indi- 
eated by the flag attached to the bleeding head of a decapitated 
bird. 


228 


THE AZTECS 229 


The units were figured by dots, the twenties by flags, 
the four hundreds by a device like a tree that repre- 
sented hair, and the eight thousands by the cere- 
monial pouches in which copal incense was carried. 


Aztecan Religion. The religion of the Aztecs, like 
that of the Mayas, was a polytheism in which special 
divinities controlled the powers of nature and the 
activities of men. The gods were perhaps further 
advanced towards human form and attributes than 
were those of the earlier culture to the south, but 
definite characterization was still accomplished by 
erotesque features and certain animal connections 
were still evident. The matter is confused beyond 
the point of analysis. The mythologies often 
ascribe different origins to the same deity. One 
eod is addressed by many names, descriptive or 
figurative, that are intended to bring out the various 
aspects of his power. Overlapping functions make 
it impossible to assign each god to his special prov- 
ince. There are universal gods, there are special 
eods, and there are patron gods of trade guilds. — 
Moreover, there are foreign gods, some recent, some 
ancient. 

The religion of central Mexico had its objective, 
ritualistic side, which appealed directly to the 
understanding of the masses, and its more subtle 
theological or philosophical side seen, for instance, 
in the poems written by priests and rulers. It was 
a mixture of spirituality and the grossest idolatry. 
The ceremonial calendar, with a description of the 
feasts and sacrifices occurring at different times of 
the year, has been preserved in a number of docu- 
ments. Pageants, incense-burning, and human 
sacrifice gave a strong dramatic quality to the reli- 
gious rites. 


[>] 


Plate XLVII. (a) Pictures of Tlaloc, the God of Rain, and of 
Ehecatl, the God of Winds, in the Codex Magliabecchiano; (Db) 
Mexican Genealogical Table on Bark Paper. The names of most 
of the individuals are given by hieroglyphs attached to the head 
or the seat. Original in the American Museum, 


230 


THE AZTECS 


231 


The conception of a supreme deity is seen in Ome- 
teuctlh, the Lord of Duality, a vague god-head and 


creator who is sometimes 
addressed in some of the 
religious poems as the 
mause of All,’’ In the 
background of the popular 
religion was the belief in 
the Earth Mother and the 
Sky Father and in the 
divinity of the Sun, the 
Moon, the Jaguar, the 
Serpent, and whatever 
else was beautiful, power- 
ful, and _ inexplicable. 
Tezcatlipoca, by reason 
of his magic and his 
omniscience, was placed 
at the head of the pan- 
theon of active gods. 
Huitzilopochtli was, how- 
ever, the favorite god of 
the Aztecs through his re- 
lation to war. ‘Tlaloc, the 
god of rain, was naturally 
of great importance to 
agriculturists living in a 
rather arid region. To- 
natiuh, the Sun God, was 
a more or less abstract 
deity who acted in part 
through other gods. But 


MX Ne WAS? y g 
eL a Goes eee 
S a WEES Ss 


od 
9) O 8 (5 (0) Gr 


= 


Fig. 79. Analysis of Mexi- 
can Record. 1, the year Two 
Reed, 1507; 2, eclipse of the 
sun; 3, earthquake at place pic- 
tured at 4; 5, the town of 
Huixachtitlan. In the temple 
(6) was held (7) the new-fire 
ceremony at the beginning of a 
52-year period. In this year 
were also drowned in the River 
Tuzae (8) two thousand war- 
riors (10) which the vultures 
devoured (9). 


the list is too long to be repeated here. 
The special gods of five principal Mexican cities 


were as follows :— 


232 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Tenochtitlan 
Texcoco 
Tlaxcala 
Cholula 
Cuauhnahuae 


Huitzilopochtli 
Tezcatlipoca 
Camaxtli 
Quetzaleoatl 
Xochiquetzalli 


Of gods with a foreign origin perhaps the most 
important were Quetzalcoatl and Xipe. The for- 


Fig. 80. Chalchuihtlicue, 
Aztecan Goddess of Water. 


mer was introduced long be- 
fore the Aztecs raised their 
banner of war and was the 
Long-nosed God of the 
Mayas, introduced under the 
patronage of Quetzalcoatl, 
the powerful emperor of the 
Toltecs. The worship of 
Xipe is said to have origi- 
nated in a town in southern 
Mexico. It had _ certainly 
taken a strong hold on the 
Aztees of Mexico City and 
was likewise known as far 
south as Salvador. It has 
recently been demonstrated 
that the people of Yopico, 
specially given to the wor- 


ship of Xipe, originated in Nicaragua. 


Conceptions of the Universe. Cosmogonic myths, 
the world over, are unscientific attempts to explain 
the creation of the universe, to outline the powers 
of the gods and to trace the development of nature. 
The cosmogonic myths of Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica are characterized by multiple creations. The 
Aztecan belief in five suns each standing for a world 


THE AZTECS 233 


epoch is paralleled in fragments of Mayan mythol- 
ogy. Creation is not emphasized so much as de- 
struction. The sequence of the suns is figured on 
the Calendar Stone, and in one of the codices, be- 
sides being explained in some of the early writings 
of Spanish priests and educated natives. The first 
sun was devoured by a jaguar and in the resulting 
darkness the inhabitants of the earth were devoured 
by jaguars. The second sun was destroyed by a 
hurricane, the third by a rain of fire, and the fourth 
by a flood. One human pair escaped each cataclysm 
and lived to repopulate the world. The fifth or 
present sun will be destroyed by an earthquake. 

Notions of the shape and character of the uni- 
verse are pretty well defined in Aztecan lore. The 
widespread belief that the universe consists of three 
superimposed worlds, the upper or sky world, the 
middle world of living men and the under world of 
the dead, is found in a developed form. The upper 
world is divided into thirteen levels. The upper- 
most four levels are called Teteocan, the abode of 
the gods, and are considered to be invisible. The 
ereator of all, Ometeuctl, Lord of Duality, dwells 
with his spouse in the highest heaven and under him 
in order are the Place of the Red God of Fire, the 
Place of the Yellow Sun God and the Place of the 
White Evening Star God. The inferior heavens, 
ealled Ilhuicatl, are given over to the visible celestial 
activities. There is one heaven for the storms, 
another for the blue sky of the day, the dark sky of 
the night, the comets, the evening star, the sun, the 
stars, ete. 

The under world is Mictlan, the Place of the Dead. 
Nine divisions are commonly given and in the lower- 
most of these lives Mictlanteucth, the Lord of 


234 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Death, and his mate. The idea of future blessing 
or punishment is not entirely absent from the minds 
of the Aztecs. Warriors killed in battle go to the 
House of the Sun, in one of the upper worlds, as do 
women who die in childbirth. Tlalocan, the lower- 
most heaven, is a sort of terrestrial paradise for 
others. Jlictlan is, however, the common abode of 
the dead, and the wretched soul can reach it only 
after a journey set with horrors. 

The cult of the quarters is intimately associated 
with the concept of the universe. With the four 
cardinal points a number of others are sometimes 
taken including the zenith, the nadir, and the mid- 
dle. The sacred numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 may thus 
conceivably be derived from the points of space, 
but it would be very unsafe to assume that they are 
necessarily so derived. The general concept of a 
universe divided into quarters, fifths, or sixths is a 
powerful conventionalizing factor in mythology, re- 
ligion, and art. Prayers, song's, and important acts 
are repeated in identical or in systematically varied 
form for each point of space. In Mayan and Az- 
tecan codices the symbolism of the four directions 
is often manifest. 


Ceremonies. Ceremonialism was intensely devel- 
oped in Mexico and the dramatic quality of many 
Aztecan rites of human sacrifice has probably never 
been equaled. We are apt to think only of the grue- 
some features of human sacrifice and to overlook 
the spiritual ones. The victim was often regarded 
as a personification of a god and as such he was 
féted, clothed in fine garments, and given every 
honor. Efforts were made to cause the victim to go 
willingly to his death uplifted by a truly religious 


THE AZTECS a 


ecstasy. It was considered unlucky that he should 
erieve or falter. 

The religious calendar was given over to fixed and 
movable feasts. The fixed feasts were eighteen in 
number and each came on the last day of a twenty- 
day period and gave its name to that period. These 
eighteen periods correspond with the Mayan uinals 
or months, but since dates were rarely given in 
relation to them, they do not have the same calen- 
drical importance. The five days that rounded out 
the 365-day year were considered unlucky. 

Each of the eighteen feasts of the year was under 
the patronage of a special divinity and each had a 
set of ceremonies all its own. In some cases the 
ceremonies were really culminations of long periods 
of preparation. Thus, on the last day of the month 
Toxeatl there was sacrificed a young man, chosen 
from captured chieftains for his beauty and accom- 
plishments, who for an entire year had been fitting 
himself for his one turn on the stage of blood and 
death. This intended victim, gayly attired and ac- 
companied by a retinue of pages, was granted the 
freedom of the city. When the month of Toxcatl 
entered he was given brides, whose names were 
those of goddesses, and in his honor was held a 
succession of brilliant festivals. On the last day 
there was a parade of canoes across Lake Texcoco 
and when a certain piece of desert land was reached, 
the brides and courtiers bade farewell to the victim. 
His pages accompanied him by a little-used trail to 
the base of an apparently ruined temple. Here he 
was stripped of his splendid garments and of the 
jewels that were symbols of divinity. With only a 
necklace of flutes he mounted the steps of the pyra- 
mid. At each step he broke one of the flutes and he 


236 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


arrived at the summit, where the priests waited, 
knife in hand, a naked man whose heart was to be 
offered to the very god he had impersonated. This 
ceremony is given only as an example, but it illus- 
trates two characteristics that are seen in several 
other sacrifices, namely, the paying of homage and 
honor to the intended sacrificial victim, and, sec- 
ondly, the necessity of keeping the victim in a happy 
frame of mind. 

The eleventh feast of the year was called Och- 
paniztli, ‘‘the feast of the broom’’ and was cele- 
brated in honor of the goddess known as Toci, or 
Teteoinnan. The first of these names means ‘‘our 
female ancestor’? and the second one means ‘‘the 
mother of the gods.’’ She was a goddess of the 
earth and her symbol was the grass broom with 
which the earth was swept. She also exerted an 
influence over the arts of the hearth, such as weav- 
ing. Her pictures in the codices show her with a 
broom in one hand and a shield in the other while 
about her head is a band of unspun cotton into 
which are stuck spindles wrapped with thread. 

During this month the roads were repaired, the 
houses and plazas swept, and the temples and idols 
refurbished. According to the text in the Codex 
Magliabecchiano there were human sacrifices in the 
temples which fronted on the roads and there were 
great dances and carousals. Those sacrificed were 
afterwards flayed as in the feast of Xipe and their 
skins worn by dancers. The picture that accom- 
panies this revolting admission is itself devoid of 
any morbid symbols. It shows a kneeling woman 
holding out the broom and shield. She wears a 
white dress and a neckless of jade beads with golden 
bells for pendants. Below her are two standing 


THE AZTECS 2b 


men who bear in their hands offerings of ripe fruit. 
Sahagun gives details of a terrible drama that 
was enacted during this twenty-day month. For 
the first eight days there was dancing without song 
and without the drum. After this prologue a 
woman was chosen to impersonate the patron god- 
dess and to wear her characteristic dress and 
ornaments. With her was a retinue of women 
skilled in medicine and midwifery. For four days 
these persons divided in opposing ranks and pelted 
each other with leaves and flowers. While this 
harmless ceremony and others like it were being 
acted out, the greatest care was taken that the 
woman who played the réle of the goddess and who 
was marked for death should not suspect her fate. 
It was considered unlucky, indeed, if this victim 
wept or was sad. When her time to die had come 
she was clothed in rich garments and given to under- 
stand that she should be that night the bride of a 
rich lord. And under such a beguiling belief she 
was led silently to the temple of sacrifice. There 
without warning an attendant lifted her upon him- 
self, back to back, and her head was instantly struck 
off. Without delay the skin was stripped from her 
warm body and a youth, wearing it as a garment, 
was conducted in the midst of captives to the temple 
of the War God, Huitzilopochtli. Here in the pres- 
ence of this mighty god the youth himself tore out 
the hearts of four victims and then abandoned the 
rest to the knife of the head priest. Thus closed 
the terrible drama which began with an innocent 
battle of flowers and ended in an orgy of blood. 
The twelfth month passed under two names. It 
was called Pachtli after a plant with which the tem- 
ples were decorated and Teotleco which signifies 


238 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


‘‘the arrival of the gods.’’ The principal feast was 
held, as usual, on the twentieth day when the great 
company of gods was supposed to return from a 
far land. One god, very youthful and robust, ar- 
rived on the eighteenth day, being able to outwalk 
the others, while a few very old and infirm divinities 
were late in getting to the feast. The one who ar- 
rived first was called Telpochtli or Titlacauan but 
in reality he was the great Tezcatlipoca in disguise. » 

In anticipation of this return, the temples, 
shrines, and household idols were decorated with 
branches. The youths who did this work were re- 
paid in corn, the amount varying from a full basket 
to a few ears. A novel manner of attesting the 
earliest presence of divinity is related. Some corn- 
meal was spread in a circular mass upon the ground. 
During the night the high priests kept vigil and 
from time to time visited this circle of cornmeal. 
When he saw a footprint in the center he cried out, 
‘‘Our master has come.’’ Then there was a burst 
of music and everyone ran to the great feast in the 
temple. Much native wine was drunk, for this was 
considered equivalent to washing the tired feet of 
the travel-worn gods. As a final act of the celebra- 
tion there was a dance in costume around a great 
fire and several unfortunates were tossed alive into 
the flames. 

Space will not permit a further examination of 
the eighteen fixed feasts. 'The movable feasts were 
mostly in definite relation to the tonalamatl and 
were thus subject to repetition every 260 days. 
The permutation of twenty day names and thirteen 
numbers is pictured in Mexican codices in two or 
more stereotyped forms, but these are very com- 
plete. In the commonest form the entire cycle is 


THE AZTECS pA) 


divided into twenty groups of thirteen days each 
and each group is presided over by a special di- 
vinity. There are other repeating series of gods, 
sacred birds, ete., that preside over the individual 
days in these groups. The tonalamatl was much 
used in Mexico in connection with foretelling events. 
The days were lucky, indifferent, or unlucky, and 
the future life of a child was believed to be locked ' 
up in the horoscope of his birthday. 

Other feasts were held in relation to longer time 
periods. There were important festivals held in 
connection with the planet Venus with especially 
elaborate ones falling at intervals of eight years. 
Still another ceremony was held at the completion 
of a fifty-two year period, when the set of years 
were figuratively bundled up and laid away and a 
new sacred fire lighted. 


Poetry and Music. The languages of Central 
America were capable of considerable literary de- 
velopment. This is seen especially in the songs that 
were used in different religious ceremonies of the 
Aztecs, as well as in the reflective poems written by 
educated natives. Several very fine pieces have 
been preserved, and while there is no rhyme, there 
is much rhythm. When recited by a person speak- 
ing fluently the native tongue these poems are very 
impressive. Of course, translation is always haz- 
ardous, and fundamental differences in language, 
such as exist between English and Aztecan, make it 
almost impossible. The most famous poet whose 
name has come down to us was Nezahualcoyotl, or 
Famishing Coyote, who was a ruler of Texcoco and 
died at the advanced age of eighty years in 1472. 
A few verses from one of his poems on the muta- 


240 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


bility of life and the certainty of death have been 
translated as follows :— 


All the earth is a grave, and naught eseapes it; nothing is s0 
perfect that it does not fall and disappear. The rivers, brooks, 
fountains and waters flow on, and never return to their joyous be- 
ginnings; they hasten on to the vast realms of Tlaloc, and the wider 
they spread between their marges the more rapidly do they mould 
their own sepulchral urns. That which was yesterday is not today; 
and let not that which is today trust to live tomorrow. 

The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once 
was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sat upon 
thrones, deciding causes, ruling assemblies, governing armies, con- 
quering provinces, possessing treasures, tearing down temples, flat- 
tering themselves with pride, majesty, fortune, praise and dominion. 
These glories have passed like the dark smoke thrown out by the 
fires of Popocatepetl, leaving no monuments but the rude skins on 
which they are written. 


Another example will serve to emphasize the 
strain of sadness and the vision of death that char- 
acterize so many Aztecan poems. 


Sad and strange it is to see and reflect on the prosperity and 
power of the old and dying king Tezozomoc; watered with ambition — 
and avarice, he grew like a willow tree rising above the grass and 
flowers of spring, rejoicing for a long time, until at length withered 
and decayed, the storm wind of death tore him from his roots and 
dashing him in fragments to the ground. The same fate befell the 
ancient King Colzatzli, so that no memory was left of him, nor of 
his lineage. 


The Aztecs held concerts in the open air where 
poems were sung to the accompaniment of the drum 
and other simple instruments. Songs were also 
sung at banquets and in the stress of love and war. 
The common musical instruments of the Aztecs vary 
but little from those in use elsewhere in Mexico and 
Central America. There were two kinds of drums. 
One was a horizontal hollowed-out log with an 


THE AZTECS 2At 


H-shaped cutting made longitudinally on its upper 
surface so as to form two vibrating strips which 
were struck with wooden drumsticks having tips of 
rubber. The second sort of drum was an upright 
log also hollowed out and covered with a drumhead 
of deerskin. Conches were used for trumpets. 
Resonator whistles with or without finger holes 


Fig. 81. A Mexican Orchestra: 1, log drum; 2, kettle drum; 3-4, 
flageolets; 5, gourd rattle; 6, turtle shell. Manuscrit du Cacique. 


were made of clay in fanciful shapes. Flageolets 
were constructed of clay, bone, or wood and flutes 
were made of reed. Resounding metal disks and 
tortoise shells were beaten in time. Many sorts of 
gourd and earthenware rattles were employed as 
well as notched bones which were rasped with a 
scraping stick. Copper bells of the sleigh bell type 


242 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


were exceedingly common. The marimba, however, 
that is such a favorite musical instrument today in 
Central America is of African origin and fairly 
recent introduction. No stringed instruments were 
known to the ancient Mexicans nor does the pan- 
pipe appear to have been used in this area although 
common in Peru. 


Minor Aztecan Arts. Some of the great sculp- 
tures of Tenochtitlan have already been described 
and references have been made to the native books 
painted in brilliant colors on paper and deerskin. 
Objects of minor art comprise pottery vessels, orna- 
ments of gold, silver, copper, jade, and other pre- 
cious materials, textiles, pieces of feather work, ete. 

The best known ceramic products are made of 
orange colored clay and carry designs in black that 
sometimes are realistic, but more often not. The 
tripod dishes with the bottoms roughed by eross 
scoring were used to grind chili. Heavy bowls with 
loop handles on the sides and a channel across the 
bottom were seemingly made to be strung on ropes. 
They may have held pitch and been used for street 
lights. The pottery figurines of the Aztecan period 
are nearly all moulded and lack the sharp detail of 
the earlier examples. They often represent deities 
wearing characteristic dress and carrying ceremo- 
nial objects. 

Comparatively few specimens of ancient gold 
work in Mexico escaped the cupidity of the Spanish 
conquerors, but these attest a remarkable profi- 
ciency in casting. The moulds were made of clay 
mixed with ground charcoal and the melting of gold 
was accomplished by means of a blow pipe. The 
technique seen in Costa Rican gold work according 


THE AZTECS 243 


to which details falsely appear to be added by sol- 
dered wire, was followed in Mexico. Modern Mex- 
ican filigree bears little relation to the ancient In- 
dian work, but is probably of Moorish origin. The 
examples of Aztecan gold work include finger rings, 
earrings, nose and lip ornaments, necklaces, and 
pendants. 

Among the precious and semi-precious stones 
known to the Aztecs, the most valuable in their eyes 
was turquoise. This was probably obtained by 
trade from the Pueblo Indians. It was mostly cut 
into thin plates and used in the manufacture of mo- 
saic objects. Red jasper, green jade, jet, gold, and 
shell of various colors was also used in these mo- 
saics. Jade was highly prized and was known as 
chalchthwtl. Ornaments 
of obsidian, a black vol- 
eanic glass, and of crystal 
quartz, are fairly common 
and others of opal and 
amethyst have been 
found. Pearls and emer- 
alds were secured in trade 
from the south. 

: The textile decorations Fig. 82. Mexican Blanket 
In vogue at the ee aa of with the Design that represents 
the. Spaniards can be re- interlacing Sand and Water 
stored from the pictures called ‘‘Spider Water.’? 

in codices. Mantles were 

often demanded as tribute and the designs are given 
on the conventional bundles in the tribute lists. 
Garments with certain designs served as insignia of 
office for several of the priesthoods. Feather mo- 
saic was highly prized and was made according to 
several methods. Capes as well as shields and 


244. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


other objects were covered with brilliant feathers 
so arranged as to bring out designs in the natural 
colors. 


The Tarascans. The Aztecs while by far the most 
important tribe in the fifteenth century did not dom- 
inate all the surrounding peoples. For instance, 
most of the State of Michoacan was controlled by 
the Tarascan tribe who defeated every expedition 
sent against them. The list of Tarascan towns is 
a long one but Tzintzuntzan which means the 
‘‘Place of the Humming Birds’’ was the eapital and 
principal stronghold. The ancient history of the 
Tarasecans is little known. Large and striking 
specimens of archaic art were formerly accredited 
to this people, but without good reason. It is likely 
that archaic characters in art were maintained in 
Michoacan after they had passed away in central 
Mexico, but we cannot be sure that the Tarascans 
were the ancient inhabitants. There is some evi- 
dence, however, of culture which can be associated 
with them. The peculiar T-shaped mounds called 
yatacas, which rise in terraces and are faced with 
stone slabs laid without mortar, may have been 
built by this tribe. Sculptures of rather fine quality 
are occasionally found, an example being a reclining 
ood of the type made famous by the ‘‘Chacmool”’ of 
Chichen Itza. Many fine copper celts have been 
unearthed in this highly mineralized mountain re- 
gion. When the Spaniards came the Tarascans 
were skilled in weaving and were particularly fa- 
mous for feather mosaics and feather pictures made 
largely of the brilliant plumage of humming birds. 
The use of the atlatl or spear-thrower survives 
among the present-day Indians who also make 


THE AZTECS 245 


gourd vessels covered with colored clays in pleasing 
geometric and floral designs. 

The Otomis are a tribe of central Mexico even 
less cultured than the Tarascans and there is some 
evidence that they entered this region from the 
south only a few centuries before the Spaniards. 
Their relatives, the Matlatzincas of the Valley of 
Toluca, had more interesting arts. 


Southern Mexico. Somewhere about the middle 
of the fifteenth century Moctezuma I planted an 
Aztecan colony at Uaxyacac on the edge of the 
Zapotecan territory to protect the trade route to 
Tabasco. This name gave rise to the modern 
Oaxaca. From this point expeditions were sent out 
which harrassed the Zapotecs to the south and the 
Mixtecs to the west. In the Tribute Roll of Mocte- 


Fig. 83. The Year Symbol of southern Mexico. It is combined 
with the four year bearers, House, Rabbit, Reed, and Stone. In the 
second detail the day 6 Serpent in the year 12 Rabbit is recorded. 


zuma II more than twenty Zapotecan towns are 
listed as paying tribute that consisted of gold disks 
and gold dust, jadeite beads, quetzal feathers, cochi- 
neal dye, fine textiles, ete. Very little is preserved 
concerning the traditional history of southern Mex- 
ico, but it is presumed that the Zapotecan culture 


246 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


before the Aztecan ascendency was a development 
of that implanted many centuries before when 
Monte Alban flourished and which we have already 
examined. As for the Mixtecs we only know that 
they produced pottery of great beauty somewhat 
similar to that of Cholula. 


Fig. 84. Year Bearers in the Codex Porfirio Diaz ascribed to the 
Cuicatecan tribe: Wind, Deer, Herb, and Movement. 


Some of the finest pre-Cortesian codices that have 
come down to us are probably of Zapotecan and 
Mixtecan origin although reflecting to some extent 
the religion of the Aztecs. Several of these have 
been interpreted by Doctor Seler in terms of Az- 
tecan religion and art. Among the documents from 
southern Mexico that belong to the late period 
are :— 


Codex Borgia Codex Féjervary-Mayer 
Codex Vaticanus 3773 Codex Vindobonensis 
Codex Bologna Codex Nuttall or Zouche 


Several lienzos or documents written on cloth are 
also from this region. The Lienzo of Amoltepec 
which is a fine example of this class is conserved in 
the American Museum of Natural History. The 
documents from southern Mexico are distinguished 
by details of geometric ornament that resemble the 
panels of geometric design on the temples of Mitla. 


THE AZTECS 247 


They record historical events, give astronomical in- 
formation and present much pictographic evidence 
on various ceremonies and religious usages. In 
giving a date a somewhat different method is used 
than we have seen in the historical records from the 
Valley of Mexico. There is a definite year sign 
(Fig. 83) and with it is combined the year bearer, 


a 


eo 
2 


Fig. 85. A Page from the Codex Nuttall, recording the Conquest 
of a Town situated on an Island of the Sea. The conquerors come in 
boats and the conquest is indicated by a spear thrust into the place 
name hieroglyph. The crocodile, flying fish, and the sea serpent are 
represented in the water. 


or initial day of the year, and often the particular 
day of the event. Unfortunately, this is not en- 
tirely satisfactory because no month signs are 
recorded and a day with a certain name and number 
frequently occurs twice in one year. The year 


248 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


i 


Fig. 86. The God Macuilxo- 
chitl, Five Flower, as shown in a 
Mexican Codex and in Pottery 
from southern Mexico. 


bearers are the same as 
among the Aztees for 
most of the documents, 
namely, Knife, House, 
Rabbit, and Reed, but 
in amanuscript ascribed 
to a tribe in southern 
Mexico called the Cui- 
catecs, the year bearers 
are Wind, Deer, Herb, 
and Movement (Fig. 
84). Conquest of a 
town is shown by a 
spear thrust into the 
place name. Individ- 
uals are often named 
after the day on which 
they were born. Thus 
8 Deer is a warrior 
hero in the Codex Nut- 
tall and 3 Knife is a 
woman who also plays 
a prominent part. In 
some of the manu- 
scripts from southern 
Mexico we see details 
that are very close to 
those in the codices of 
the Mayas. 


Aztecan Influence in 
Central America. The 
influence from the late 
Mexican cultures ean be 
traced far to the south. 


THE AZTECS 249 


Decorative motives that show affiliations to those of 
the Aztecs and their immediate predecessors are 
found as far south as Costa Rica but the strain is 
thin and not to be compared with the evidences of 
culture connection over wide territories that are 
found on earlier horizons. There was clearly a 
brisk trade in gold in Aztecan times between the 
Isthmus of Panama and Mexico. 

After the breakdown of the civilization of the 
humid lands of Central America, following the 
Mayan cataclysm, the abandoned regions appear to 
have been repopulated by a stream of tribes from 
South America who swept up the coast of the Carib- 
bean Sea and across the peninsula of Yucatan, as 
far as Tehuantepec. There was also a strong 
northern movement of tribes along the Pacific Coast 
seen most clearly in the distribution of languages 
belonging to the Chiapanecan or Chorotegan stock. 
The early historic records show the Mazateca in 
transit from their old home in Costa Rica to their 
new one in northern Oaxaca. Cortez in 1526 found 
these Indians in Yucatan. 


A Cross-Section of New Worup History 


This survey of ancient history in Mexico and 
Central America discloses a condition which doubt- 
less holds true of the archeological record in other 
parts of the world. The earliest sedentary culture 
was by far the most homogeneous and widespread. 
This means it modified slowly and lasted for ages. 
At the same time, owing to the connection of the 
archaic complex with agriculture, the initial spread 
may have been rapid. The plants domesticated by 
the American Indians were developed far beyond 
the wild types, much farther indeed, than the do- 


250 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


mestic plants of the Old World. This development 
must have extended over many centuries. The first 
horizon of agriculture was based on plants of an 
arid highland environment. The second horizon of 
agriculture was based on these same plants after 
they had been slowly modified to fit a humid lowland 
environment, as well as on certain new plants of 
humid lowland origin. 

The Mayan civilization was specialized to the wet 
lowlands of the tropic zone and while the influence 
exerted by this dominant culture of the New World 
was felt over a great area, the exact characters were 
not reproduced elsewhere. ‘Trade relations can be 
traced from Yucatan to Colombia on the one hand 
and on the other to New Mexico. The eycle of the 
Mayan civilization was comparatively short and the 
eycles of the resultant civilizations were even 
shorter. All New World history must be referred 
ultimately to the horizons of culture described 
above, with the standard chronology of the Mayas 
as the only definite scale. 

In the cross-section of New World history pre- 
sented herewith the horizontal measures represent 
space and the vertical measures represent time. 
The line A~B—C-D begins at Victoria Island and 
ends at Cape Horn, cutting across the culture areas 
named on the diagram. Over a large part of this 
cross-section the ‘‘horizon of recorded history”’ is 
in fact the time of the first European exploration, 
but in Colombia and Peru, there are well-defined 
traditions giving lists of kings, while in Central 
America there is exact chronology going back 2000 
years before the coming of the white man. Below 
this and within it there are archeological records 
of culture sequence which in some regions, such as 


THE AZTECS 2o1 


the Pueblo Area, have been nicely classified. On 
the basis of trade relations and diffused ideas in ma- 
terial and esthetic arts the marginal chronology can 
be tied in with that of the central standard section 
of history. Of course, all dates earlier than the 
first recorded ones are theoretical. The beginning 
of agriculture in America is put at 4000 B. C.—it 
may be earlier, but can hardly be much later. 

In the Pueblo or Southwest Area a single type of 
flint corn, doubtless introduced from the south, ap- 
pears on the first agricultural level. Contacts with 
Mexico and Central America are inferable during 
Basket Maker II and ITI, the latter stratum having 
female fetishes roughly comparable with those of 
the Archaic Horizon of Mexico. Later Southwest 
evolution is autochthonous until the end of Pueblo 
III when the concepts of the Plumed Serpent, the 
Kagle Man, Four-direction symbolism, ete., come 
from Mexico with Toltee trade. Culture sequence 
in the Southwest is about as follows :— 


Pueblo V Modern 1692 to present time 
Pueblo IVb Early Historie 1538 to 1692 

Pueblo IVa Protohistorie 1200 to 1538 

Pueblo IIIb Toltec Trade 1000 to 1200 

Pueblo Illa Urban Developments 

Pueblo II Small House 

Pueblo I Proto-Pueblo 


Basket Maker III First Pottery 
Basket Maker II First Agriculture 
Basket Maker I Nomadie 


In Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru culture succes- 
sions are now being worked out. The best criterion 
of age is found in metals which enter Central Amer- 
ica from South America after the fall of the First 
Mayan Empire, ie., after 630 A. D. The technology 


Ag yl. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


of metal working is continuous from southern Co- 
lombia to central Mexico. Negative painting with 
wax has a wider and perhaps earlier distribution, 
reaching Ecuador and Peru in association with tri- 
pod pottery which is otherwise rare in the Andean 
region. Various motives of design link the two con- 
tinents, especially on the Toltec-Chorotegan level. 
Between 1000 and 1200 A. D. civilization seems to 
have been generally stabilized, but this haleyon age 
was followed by disorganization and far-reaching 
migrations. The pre-Spanish horizons of southern 
Peru are tentatively arranged as follows by A. L. 
Kroeber, the apparently earlier material of Ancon 
being omitted for lack of the cross-ties. 


GRRE ea bate 

IIe. Late Ica 
IIb. Middle Ica 
IIa. Epigonal 
Ib. Late Nasca 
Ta. Early Nasca 


The early Nasca civilization was far from prim- 
itive being characterized by pyramids, fine textiles, 
and some metal. Mayan strains have been recog- 
nized in Chavin and Recuay in Peru and various 
sites in Eeuador. 

The dynamic forces in the history of man in the 
New World have a tremendous bearing upon the 
present and future state of the world. The debt 
which we owe to the ancient civilizations of Mexico 
and Central America becomes apparent when we 
list the more important agricultural plants, fibers, 
gums, dyes, ete., which were taken over by Euro- 
peans from the American Indians. 


THE AZTECS 25D 


Food Plants Cultivated by American Indians 


Maize Pineapples Cashew nut 
Potatoes Nispero Jocote 

Sweet potatoes Barbados cherry Star apples 
Tomatoes Strawberries Paraguay tea 
Pumpkins Persimmons Alligator pear 
Squashes Papaws Chirimoya 
Lima beans Guava Sour sop 
Kidney beans Arracacha Sweet sop 
Peppers Peanuts Custard apple 
Cacao Oca Cassava 


Important Economic Contributions of American 
Indians 


FIBERS MEDICINES 
Cotton Tobacco 
Henequen Cinchona (Quinine) 
Pita Cascara Sagrada 

Cocaine 
Ipecac 
Sarsaparilla 
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS GUMS 
Alpaca Rubber 
Llama Copal 
Guinea pig Peruvian Balsam 
Dog (perhaps Old World) Chicle 
Muscovy duck 
Turkey 
DYES 
Anil (Indigo) 
Cochineal 
Logwood 


Fustic 


B 


an i. VpORES FOR ne 
ne Pal ey Yt 


pee y 


ss [=| ee aa y VIL 
s oa a rei a ye . 


- ee ae 


| 2 aa > T Z 
ee a as eae eA . 


LU 7 a th 
on ey fia lithic or 


Prim 
Nedlitho, Deer cininatir stg 0 in 


* ‘ 
Sy 7 
‘ Peon, Vee ee es ae 
“4 a ‘ 
: Aigo 
, r ' 
is 
F iy 
. er. 
, pty) 
, r 
Ae 
‘ ( . y 
} - ee 
, nits a if 
ata ewan ; 
F ede J 
‘a 
, 
4 ae 
} ib 
in 
' oe 
| 5 
¥ At ; 
Z A 
{ 


nate 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


A brief list of books on Mexico and Central America is ap- 
pended. These books may be consulted in the Museum Library as 
well as others referred to in the more complete bibliographies that 
will be found in the works cited. 


BaANcrorT, H. H. The Native Races of the Pacific States. 5 vols. 
New York and London, 1875-1876. 

BANDELIER, ADOLPH F. On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands 
and the Customs with Respect to Inheritance, among the An- 
cient Mexicans. (Eleventh Annual Report, Peabody Museum 
of American Archeology and Ethnology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 384- 
448, Cambridge, 1878.) 

Social Organization and Mode of Govern- 
ment of the Ancient Mexicans. (Twelfth Annual Report, Pea- 
body Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, vol. 2, 

- no. 3, Cambridge, 1879.) . 

Bowpitcu, C. P. The Numeration, Calendar Systems and Astro- 
nomical Knowledge of the Mayas. Cambridge, 1910. 

BRANSFORD, J. F. Archeological Researches in Nicaragua. (Smith- 
sonian Contributions to Knowledge, XXV, Art. 2, pp. 1-96, 
1881.) 

Brinton, D. G. The Maya Chronicles. Philadelphia, 1882. (No. 1 
of Brinton’s Library of Aboriginal American Literature.) 

The Annals of the Cakchiquels. The original text 
with a translation, notes and introduction. Philadelphia, 1885. 
(No. 6 of Brinton’s Library of Aboriginal American Literature.) 

Essays of an Americanist. Philadelphia, 1890. 

BULLETIN 28, Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar 
Systems and History. Twenty-four papers by Eduard Seler,.E. 
Foérstemann, Paul Schellhas, Carl Sapper and E. P. Dieseldorff. 
Translated from the German under the supervision of Charles P. 
Bowditch. (Bulletin 28, Bureau of American Ethnology, Wash- 
ington, 1904.) 

CHARNAY, D. The Ancient Cities of the New World. Trans. by J. 
Gonino and H. S. Conant. London, 1887. 

DiAs DEL CASsiILLO, BerNAL. The True History of the Conquest of 
Mexico, 1568. 3 vols. (Translated by A. P. Maudslay. Hak- 
luyt Society, London, 1908.) 


255 


256 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


FORSTEMANN, E. Commentary of the Maya Manuscript im the 
Royal Public Library of Dresden. (Papers, Peabody Museum, 
IV, No. 2, pp. 48-266, 1906.) 

GANN, T. Mounds in Northern Honduras. (Nineteenth Annual Re- 
port, Bureau of American Ethnology, part 2, pp. 661-692, 
Washington, 1897-1898.) 

HarTMANN, C. V. Archeological Researches in Costa Rica. (The 
Royal Ethnographical Museum in Stockholm, Stockholm, 1901.) 

Archeological Researches on the Pacifie Coast 
of Costa Rica. (Memoirs, Carnegie Institute, vol. 3, pp. 1-95, 
1907 ;) 

Houmers, W. H. Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui. (Sixth 
Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 3-187, 
Washington, 1888.) 

Archeological Studies among the Ancient Cities 
in Mexico. (Publications, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 
1895-1897.) 

Joyce, T. A. Mexican Archeology. An Introduction to the Arche- 
ology of the Mexican and Maya Civilizations of pre-Spanish 
America. New York and London, 1914. 

Central American and West Indies Archeology. Be- 
ing an Introduction to the Archeology of the States of Nica- 
ragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the West Indies. New York, 
1916, 

Maya and Mezican Art. London, 1927. 

KrxessoroucH, Lorp. Antiquities of Mexico. 9 vols., folio. Lon- 
don, 1831-1848. 

LEHMANN, W. Methods and Results in Mexican Research. Trans. 
by Seymour de Ricci. Paris, 1909. 

Ergebnisse einer Forschungsreise in Mittelamerika 
und Mexico 1907-1909. (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, Band 42, 
pp. 687-749, 1910.) 

Zentral Amerika. Die Sprachen Zentral-Amerikas 
in thren Beziechungen zueinander sowie zu Siid-Amerika und 
Mexiko. In zwei Banden. Band 1. Berlin, 1920. 

Lorurop, 8. K. Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. (Contribu- 
tions, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, vol. 
VIII, 1926.) 

LumHoutz, C. Unknown Mexico. 2 vols. New York, 1902. 

Symbolism of the Huichol Indians. (Memoirs, 
American Museum of Natural History, vol. 3, part 1, 1900.) 

Decorative Art of the Huichol Indians. (Memoirs, 
American Museum of Natural History, vol. 3, part 4, 1904.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 257 


MacCurpy, G. G. A Study of Chiriquian Antiquities. (Memoirs, 
Connecticut Academy of Sciences, vol. 3, 1911.) 

Maupstay, A. P. Biologia Centrali-Americana, or Contributions to 
the Knowledge of the Flora and Fauna of Mexico and Central 
America. Archeology, 4 vols. of text and plates. London, 
1889-1902. 

MEMOIRS OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM, vols. 1-5. Reports on excava- 
tions and exploration by Gordon, Maler, Thompson, and Tozzer. 

Moruey, 8. G. An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hiero- 
glyphs. (Bulletin 57, Bureau of American Ethnology, Wash- 
ington, 1915.) 

The Inscriptions at Copan. (Publication 219, 
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, 1920.) 

PENAFIEL, A. Monumentos del arte Mexicano antiguo. 3. vols. 
Berlin, 1890. 

Nomenclatura geografica de Mexico. Mexico, 1897. 

SAHAGUN, BERNARDINO DE. Histoire générale des Choses de la Nou- 
velle-Espagne. (Edited and translated by D. Jourdanet and 
Rémi Siméon.) 1880. 

Historia de las cosas de Nueva Espana. (Portfolio 
of illustrations from two Sahagun manuscripts copied under 
direction of F. del Paso y Troncoso and issued by the Mexican 
Government. Florence, 1922.) 

SAVILLE, MarsHALL H. Turquois Mosaic Art in Ancient Mezico. 
(Contributions, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Founda- 
tion, vol. VI, 1922.) 

The Wood-Carver’s Art in Ancient Mexico. 
(Contributions, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Founda- 
tion, vol. IX, 1925.) 

SCHELLHAS, P. Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts. 
2nd edition revised. (Translated by Miss Selma Wesselhoeft 
and Miss A. M. Parker, Papers, Peabody Museum, vol. 4, No. 1, 
pp. 7-47, 1904.) 

SeLErR, E. Die alten Ansiedelungen von Chaculad im Districkte Nen- 
ton des Departments Huehuetenango der Republic Guatemala. 
Berlin, 1901. 

Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur amerikanischen Sprach- 
und Alterthumskunde. 5 vols. Berlin, 1908-1923. 

Codex Vaticanus No. 3773 (Codex Vaticanus B). An 
Old Mexican Pictorial Manuscript in the Vatican Library. 
(Translated by A. H. Keane.) SBerlin and London, 1902-1903. 


258 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


SPINDEN, H. J. A Study of Maya Art. Memoirs, Peabody Museum, 
vol. 6, 1913.) 

The Reduction of Maya Dates. (Papers, Peabody 
Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard Uni- 
versity, vol. 6, no. 4, Cambridge, 1924.) 

Squier, E. G. The States of Central America: their Geography, 
Topography, Climate, Population, etc. New York, 1858. 

STEPHENS, J. L. Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. 2 vols. 
New York, 1841. 

Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. 2 vols. New 
York, 1843. 

THOMAS, C. A Study of the Manuscript Troano. (U. 8. Geographi- 
cal and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, Con- 
tributions to American Ethnology, V, pp. 1-224, 1882.) 

THOMAS, C., AND SWANTON, JOHN R. Indian Languages of Mezico 
and Central America. (Bulletin 44, Bureau of American Eth- 
nology, Washington, 1911.) 

TozzerR, A. M. A Comparative Study of the Mayas and Lacandones. 
New York, 1907. 

A Maya Grammar, with Bibliography and Appraise- 
ment of the Works Noted. (Papers, Peabody Museum of Amer- 
ican Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. 9, 
Cambridge, 1921.) 


INDEX 


Acropolis, artificial, 72, 74, 77. 

Adobe, 63; houses, Mexican, 15. 

Agriculture, connection with archaic 
art, 249; distribution of, 68, 
70, 71; distribution in the New 
World, 67, 68, 70; influence on 
Mayan culture, 73; invention 
of, 45, 51-53, 67, 251; spread 
and development of, 638, 70, 250. 

Ah Puch, Lord of Death, 101. 

Alphabet, of Landa, 125. 

Altars, Mayan, 84; Quirigua, 108. 

Amulets, archaic figurines as, 61; 
gold, 198. 

Animals, domestication of, 20, 59, 
253. 

Annals of Quauhtitlan, 171, 172. 

Arch, in Mayan architecture, 79. 

Archaic, art, 45-46, 53-57, 58, 75, 
244; art, on borders of Mayan 
area, 75; art, local develop- 
ments of, 63-68; culture, 187, 
249; culture, distribution of, 
63-66, 69; culture, figures, 60, 
61, 62; figurines, 53-57; ho- 
rizon, 45-71; horizon, exten- 
sions of, 63-68; pottery, 46, 
59-61; sites, 50; stone sculp- 
tures, 61-63. 

Architecture, early period of the 
Mayas, 146; great period of the 
Mayas, 147; historical sequence 
determined by, 108-109; Ma- 
yan, 77-83; Mitla, 157, 163- 
164; Monte Alban, 159; period 
of the League of Mayapan, 


149; transition period, Mayan, 
148; types of, La Quemada, 
182-183; Zapotecan, 159. 

Art, archaic, 45-46, 53-57, 75, 244; 
archaic, characterization of, 53; 
archaic, Colombia, and Vene- 
zuela, 66-67; archaic, local de- 
velopments of, 63-68; bat, 
represented in, 20; Chorotegan, 
190-195; decorative, Isthmian 
region, 64, 66; high develop- 
ment of Mayan, 73; massive 
sculptural, 83-84; Mayan, 89, 
146, 147, 148, 149, 150; Mayan, 
human figure in, 93-94; Mayan, 
sequences in, 106-109; Mayan, 
serpent in, 89-93; motives, 
Huichol, 37-38; Santa Lucia 
Cozumalhualpa, 188; Tarascan, 
244-245; Toltecan, influenced 
by Mayan, 169, 170; Totona- 
can, close correspondence to 
Mayan, 165, 166, 167; Zapote- 
can, influenced by Mayan, 159. 

Arts, minor, Aztecan, 242-244; 
Mayan, 87-89. ; 

Astronomical, base line, Copan, 138; 
checks, on _ correlation with 
Christian chronology, 136-137; 
observatories, Mayan, 137-139. 

Astronomy, Mayan knowledge of, 
13, 1115 433. 

Atlatl, 58, 244. 

Atzeapotzaleo, 203, 204, 209; strati- 
fication at, 47-48, 169. 

Aztecan history, 204-209. 


259 


260 


Aztecs, 34, 201-249; and Mayas, 
compared to Greeks and Rom- 
ans, 201-203. 


Baktun, defined, 120. 

Bar and dot numerals, 119, 120, 128, 
154, 157, 159. 

Basketry, Mayan, 88. 

Bats, represented in ancient art, 20. 
Bells, Aztecan, 241-242; copper, 
187; copper and gold, 198. 

Ben, Mayan day sign, 87. 

Birds, Mexico and Central America, 
20-21. 

Blankets, Mexican, 39, 243. 

Brilliant period, Mayan civilizations, 
75, 77, 147-148. 

Buildings, Mayan, 78; Mitla, 164. 


Caban, Mayan day sign, 88. 
Cakchiquels, 151, 211. 
Calendar, annual, Mayan, 110, 111; 


Central American, 163; cere- 
monial, Aztecan, 229; lunar, 
Mayan, 140-142; lunar-solar, 


Mayan, 112; Mayan, scheme as 
presented in Codex Tro-Cor- 
religious, <Az- 


tesianus, 116; 
tecan, 235-236; system, Zapo- 
tecan, 156; Venus, Mayan, 143-— 
145. 

Calendar round, Mayan, 117-118. 

Calendar Stone, 214, 215-219, 233. 

Calpoli, Aztecan, 211, 213. 

Cannibalism, 43. 

Captives, as represented in Mayan 
art, 93. 

Caribs, characterization of culture, 
43. 

Caricature, in archaic figurines, 54, 
58. 


Carving, development in style at 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Copan, 107; on Mayan monu- 
ments, 108; stone, at Xochi- 
ealeo, 179. 

Celts, copper, Tarascan, 244; stone, 
63. 

Cemetery, at Copileo, 49-51. 

Cempoalan, 25, 169, 195. 

Cenote, 18; sacred, at Chichen Itza, 
28, 154. 

Cephalic index, Mexico and Central 
America, 44. 

Ceremonial, bar, Mayan, 93, 98, 99, 
108; regalia, depicted in Mayan 
art, 94. 

Ceremonies, Aztecan, 234-239; Mex- 
ican, 41, 

Chacmool, 170, 194-195, 244. 

Chalchuihtlicue, Aztecan Goddess of 
Water, 232. 

Chapultepec, 207. 

Chiapanecan languages, 35-36. 

Chichen Itza, 28, 110, 139, 149, 150, 
170, 173, 179, 188, 244. 

Chichimecas, 203-204. 

Chicomoztoe, 182, 204. 

Chiefs, Aztecan, 210, 213; Texcoco, 
204; Toltecan, 171; war, Az- 
tecan, 208-209; Zapotecan, 161. 

Chilam, Balam, Books of, 109-111, 
234, 

Chimayo blankets, 39. 

Cholula, 25, 180-182, 203. 

Chorotegan culture, 157, 189-195. 

Chronology, archaic horizon, 45-46; 
Aztecan, 205; bases of Mayan, 
103-106; diagram of New 
World, opposite 253; Mayan, 
250; Mayan, correlation with 
Christian, 75, 110-111, 135- 
136; Mayan, established by 
dated monuments and style of 
sculpture, 104, 106, 107; Pe- 


INDEX 


ruvian, 252; Southwestern, 251; 
Toltecan, 173. 

Cities, Mayan, 75. 

Civilization, Mayan, 73-151, 250. 
Civilizations, middle, in Mexieo and 
Central America, 153-198. 

Clans, kinship, 210-211. 

Climate, Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica, 13-14. 

Cloisonné pottery, 178, 183-184; 
San Juan Teotihuacan, 178. 

Coatlicue, 215, 221-223. 

Codex, Aubin, 205, 206, 208; Bor- 
bonicus, 228; Magliabecchiano, 
230, 236; Nuttall, 246, 247; 
Telleriano-Remensis, 202; Tro- 
Cortesianus, 116; Xolotl, 204. 

Codices, Mayan, 128-135, 248; 
Mayan gods in, 99, 100, 103; 
Mexican, 223; southern Mexico, 
163, 246-247. 


Colhuacan, 203, 207; stratification 
at, 48-49. 
Collectors, specimens in Mexican 


Hall, 6. 

Colonization, Central America, by 
Spaniards, 22; Mexico, 29. 
Columns, sculptured, at Tula, 179. 

Comalealeo, 153. 

Commerce, Aztecan objects of, 227. 

Composition in design, Mayan, 94- 
or. 

Conquest, history of Spanish, 22- 
32; of Mexico, 22-31; symbol 
for, 247, 248. 

Construction of walls, Tua Que- 
mada,. 182-183; Mayan, 78, 79, 
81, 83: Mitla, 157-158, 164. 

Copan, 19,72, 74, 77, 83, 85, 138, 
139, 141, 146, 147, 188. 

Copileo 49, 50. 

Cora, 33, 37. 


261 


Coronado, 30. 

Correlations, dates with style of 
calving in Mayan monuments, 
104) 1067-107, 2110, 21115 124— 
125; Mayan and Christian 
chronology, 135, 136-137. 

Cortez, Hernando, 24, 26, 27, 29, 
80, 209, 217, 249. 

Crocodile motive, in Chorotegan art, 
191, 193; Isthmian region, 194, 
197. 

Crops, indigenous and introduced, 
Mexico and Central America, 
21; principal, Mayan region, 


(eee thie 
Cross-section, typical, Mayan tem- 
plejeis,- 73. 


Cuauhtemoe, 29. 

Cuicuileo, 49, 50, 51. 

Cuitlahuae, 27. 

Cult, of the quarters, Aztecan, 234; 
of Xipe, 189. 

Culture, Carib, 438; Chorotegan, 
189-195; horizons,  stratifica- 
tion of, 45-46; MHuichol, 38; | 
Lacandone Indians, 41; Mayan, 
73-151; Mosquito Indians, 43; 
peoples speaking Uto-Aztecan 
languages, 34-35; sequences of, 
250-252; southern Mexico, 245-~ 
248; strata, Atzeapotzaleo, 48; 
Sumo Indians, 43; Tarascans, 
244-245; Toltees, 169-171, 203 ; 


Totonacan, 165-169; Zapote- 
ean, 156-163. 

Cyele, defined, 113. 

Dances, hunting, Huichol, 38; 


Mosquito Indians, 43. 

Dates, of dedication, Mayan, 123- 
125; early Mayan, 146, 153; 
Mayan, 96, 107, 117-118, 122, 


262 


123; on National Stone, 218; 
Olmeca, 154, 156; Toltecan, 
172-173. 

Day, count, Mayan, elements of the, 
112-114; signs, Aztecan, 218, 
225-226; signs, hieroglyphs 
used on Mayan pottery, 87-88; 
signs, Mayan, 112, 125; signs, 
Zapotecan, 159. 

Death God, Mayan, 101, 116. 

Decoration, Mayan buildings, 83; 
Mayan pottery, 85, 87-88; pot- 
tery, archaic period, 59, 61. 

Decorative motives, Chorotegan art, 
190-193; distribution of, 252. 

Dedication, dates of, Mayan, 123- 
125. 

Design, composition and _perspec- 
tive, Mayan, 94-98; on Leyden 
plate, 146; on Mexican blanket, 
243; motives, archaic pottery, 
46, 61; motives, Costa Riea, 
191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 197. 

Designs, archaic horizon, 64; on 
blankets, 39; developed in neg- 
ative painting, 184-185; geo- 
metric, at Mitla, 164, 246; 
Mayan pottery, 85-88; poly- 
chrome pottery, 87; realistic, 
Mayan pottery, 85, 87; textile, 
archaic, 58; textile, Aztecan, 
243; textile, Mayan, 88; Toto- 
nacan sacrificial yokes and pad- 
dle stones, 167; woven, Hui- 
chol, 37, 38. 

Dogs, domestication of, 58-59. 

Donors, collections in Mexican Hall, 
6. 

Dresden Codex, 101i, 128, 130, 134, 
141, 142, 143, 145. 

Dress, shown in archaic figurines, 
57; Mexico and Central Amer- 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


ica, 

39. 
Drums, Aztecan, 240-241. 
Dyes, 253. 


39-41; modern Mexican, 


Farly Period, in Mayan history, 
146-147, 

Earrings, archaic figurines, 57. 

Economie contributions, of Amer- 
ican Indians, 253. 

Fheeatl, God of Winds, 58, 226, 230. 

Ek Ahau, war god, Mayan, 103. 

Elevations, Mayan buildings, 81-83. 

Environment, Mayan, 153; Mexico 
and Central Ameriea, 13-21. 

Ethnology, 36-44, 57-59. 

European contact, history of, 22-32. 

Exploration, of Central America, 
by Spaniards, 22; Mexico, 22, 
29. 

Eyes, archaic sculptures, 63; color 
and Mongoloid tilt, 44; Toto- 
nacan figurines, 165; types of, 
on archaic figurines, 56-57, 64. 


Facade decoration, Mayan, 83-84. 

Face numerals, Mayan inscriptions, 
BB) es 6 

Fauna, Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica, 20-21. 

Feast, in connection with planet 
Venus, 239; of the twelfth 
month, 237-238. 

Feasts, Aztecan, 235-239; Sumo, 43. 

Feather mosaics, Aztecan, 243-244; 
Tarascan, 244. 

Fertility, female figurines associated 
with, 46, 59, 63. 

Fetishes, female, 
Pueblo, 251. 

Figurines, archaic, 46, 53-57; ar- 
chaic, at Atzeapotzaleo, 47; 


Southwestern 


INDEX 


archaic, Colombia and Vene- 
zuela, 66-67; archaic, Isthmian 
region, 64, 65; archaic, Nica- 
ragua, 64; archaic, Salvador, 
56, 64; clay, transition period, 
75; female, Basket-Maker III, 
63-64; female, distribution of, 
59, 63-64; female, Island of 
Marajo, 67; pottery, Aztecan, 
242; pottery, San Juan Teoti- 
huacan, 177-178. 

Filigree, modern Mexican work, 243. 

First Empire, Mayan, 111, 123, 142, 
148, 195, 251. 

Flageolets, Aztecan, 241. 

Flora, Mexico and Central America, 
21. 

Flores, 28. 

Flying facade, Mayan buildings, 83. 

Food plants, cultivated by American 
Indians, 253; most widely dis- 
tributed in the New World, 52. 

Frescoes, Mitla, 163-164. 

Frontier cities, of the northwest, 
183-187. 

Fruits, native, 21. 

Funerary urns, Zapotecan, 
160; also frontispiece. 


159, 


Games, ceremonial Toltecan, 170; 
sacred, Olmeca, 154. 

Genealogical table, Mexican, 230. 

Genealogies, Aztecan, 210. 

Geography, Mexico and Central 
America, 13-21. 

Geology, Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica, 19-20. 

Gladiator stones, 219. 

Glaze, on modern Mexican pottery, 
39. 

Glyphs, introducing, 122, 123; pe- 
riod, Mayan, 121, 123, 126; 


263 


supplementary series, 123, 141, 
142. 

God houses, Huichol, 38. 

God of War, Mayan, 103. 

God’s eyes, Huichol, 38. 

Gods, Aztecan, 225, 229, 231; beast, 
Mayan representation of, 99; 
in Dresden Codex, 101; Mayan, 
89, 98-103, 135; Mexican, 58, 
229, 230-232; represented in 
pottery from San Juan Teoti- 
huaean, 178. 

Gold work, ancient, Isthmian region, 
66; Aztecan, 242-243; in eru- 
ciform tombs, 164; Isthmian, 
195-198; Mayan, 89; 
teean, 160. 

Gourd vessels, Tarascan, 245. 
Government, Aztecan, 209, 213; 
theocratic of the Mayas, 93. 
Graves, Isthmian, gold 

found in, 198. 

Great Mound, Copan, 147. 

Great Period, Mayan history, 147 
148. 

Great Pyramid, Mexico City, 206, 
208. 

Grooving, archaic figurines, 56. 
Groundplans, Toltecan buildings, 
170; Yaxchilan tempies, 77. 

Guatuso, 44. 

Gums, 253. 


Zapo- 


objects 


Haab, defined, 139. 

Hablatun, defined, 120. 

Hair form, Indians of Mexico and 
Central America, 44; Lacan- 
done, 42. 

Headdresses, archaic figurines, 55, 
57; Zapotecan funerary urns, 


’ 


159-160; Zapotecan, 42. 


264 


Head form, Indians of Mexico 
and Central America, 44. 
Hieroglyphs, Aztecan, of precious 
stones, 224; containing phonetic 
element kin, 127; decorative use 
on pottery, Mayan, 87-88; of 
the Four Directions, 126, 127; 
Mayan, 738, 97, 125-128; May- 
an, Venus and the Moon, 137; 
Nahuan, 224; on stelae at 
Monte Alban, 159; on the 
Stone of Tizoe, 221; at Xochi- 
ealeo, 179; Zapotecan, 160-161. 

History, Aztecan, 204-209; Chi- 
chimecan, 203-204;  cross-sec- 
tion of New World, 249-253; 
of European contact, Mexico 
and Central America, 22-32; 
Mayan, 136; Mayan, recovery 
of, 103-106; Mayan, summary 
of, 145-151; summary in rela- 
tion to archaeological evidences, 
on the archaic horizon, 68, 71; 
Toltecan, 171-175; traditional, 
southern Mexico, 245-246. 

Hochob, 80, 148. 

Hokan linguistie stock, distribution 
of, 36. 

Horse, introduction of, 67-68. 

Hotun periods, 124. 

Houses, adobe, Mexican, 15, 39; ar- 
chaic period, 63; Mayan, 79. 

Huastecas, 35, 165. 

Huichol, 33, 37. 

Huipili, deeorated, 40, 41. 

Huitzilihuitl, 207, 210. 

Huitzilopochtli, 215, 221, 231, 237. 

Human, form, carved in stone, ar- 
chaic period, 61, 63; form, ‘in 
Mayan art, 89, 93-94, 106-108. 

Hunae Ceel, identification of, 150. 

Hunting implements, Lacandone, 41. 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Tihuicatl, inferior heavens, 233. 

Tmix, day sign, Mayan, 87; first 
day of formal permutation, 114. 

Incense burners, Lacandone, 41. 

Incised designs on pottery, 88. 

Influence, Aztecan, in Central Amer- 
ica, 248-249; Mayas, on other 
civilizations, 170; Mexican, in 
northern Yucatan, 150. 

Initial Series dates, 123, 124, 135, 
141, 149. 

Inscriptions, hieroglyphic, 103; hier- 
oglyphic, on Mayan monuments, 
123-125; Mayan, face numerals 
on, 121; Mayan, Great Period, 
141-148; Mayan, typical, 122. 

Invention of agriculture, in the 
New World, 45, 51-53, 67, 251. 

Irrigation, in the New World, 17, 
52-53, 63. 

Itzamna, 99, 103, 116. 

Ixchel, Goddess of the 
103. 

Ixtapalapan, 26. 

Ixtubtun, Mayan goddess, 103. 


Rainbow, 


Jade, carving of, Mayan, 89; Za- 
potecan, 160; work in, Aztec, 
243. 

Jaguar design, Chorotegan art, 191, 
193. 


Kan, day sign, Mayan, 88; maize 
sign, 135. 

Katun, defined, 110, 120. 

Kukulean, 150. 


Lacandone Indians, 35, 41, 151. 

Lakes, Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica, 17, 18-19. 

Land laws, Aztecan, 211. 


INDEX 


Language, Toltecan, 170; Totona- 
can, 165. 

Languages, Central America, 239; 
Mexico and Central America, 
32-36. 


La Quemada, 182, 183. 


League, Aztecan, 209; of Mayapan, 
145, 149. 

Leyden Plate, 146. 

Lienzo of Amoltepec, 246. 

Linguistic stocks, Mexico and Cen- 
tral America, 32-36, 

Lintels, Mayan sculptured, 83, 97; 
Zapotecan, with hieroglyphs, 
159. 

Long count, Mayan, 123, 141. 

Long-nosed God, Mayan, 98, 100, 
101, 160, 232. 

Lunar, calendar, Mayan, 112, 140- 
142. 

Lunar-solar calendar, Mayan, 112. 

Maeuilxochitl, God Five 
248. 

Maize God, Mayan, 99, 100, 103. 

Maize, distribution of use, 52; most 
important food of the New 
World, 52; staple, in Mayan 
region, 75. 

Manikin Scepter, 93, 99, 100. 
Manioe, cultivation of, 52; use and 
preparation by Carib, 43. 

Marimba, origin of, 242. 

Mask panels, on Mayan structures, 
84, 159. 

Matlatzineas, 245. 

Mayan civilization, 73-151; linguis- 
tic stock, distribution of, 35-36. 

Mayas, and Aztecs, compared to 
Greeks and Romans, 201-203. 

- Mazatecas, 189. 


Flower, 


265 


Medicines, 253. 

Metal, ornaments made of, Mayan, 
89; working, technology of, 
251-252; Zapotecan, 145. 

Metates, elaborately sculptured, 193. 

Metonie cycle, Greeks, 140. 

Mexican, Hall, American Museum, 
5-6; influence, period of, in 
Mayan history, 149-150. 

Mexitin, 34. 

Mictlan, 163, 233, 234. 

Mictlanteuctli, Lord of Death, 233- 
234, 

Middle Period, in Mayan history, 
147. 

Migrations, Aztecan, 205-207; in- 
dicated by distribution of lin- 
guistie stocks, 35-36. 

Mitla, 19, 156-157, 163-165, 246. 

Mixteean stock, 35. 

Mixtecas, 156, 246. 

Moetezuma, 25, 26, 27, 215, 245. 

Modeling, archaic figurines, 53, 55— 


57; archaic sculptures, 63; 
clay, San Juan Teotihuacan, 
178. 


Modern Period, Mayan history, 150. 

Mogotes, Zapotecan burial mounds, 
160. 

Monkey, in Chorotegan art, 190-191. 

Monte Alban, 152, 155, 156, 246. 

Month, Mayan, twenty day signs of, 
113; signs, of Mayan year, 115; 
signs, Zapotecan, 159. 


Months, Aztecan, 227; Mayan, 
length of, 115; Mayan, names 
of, 115. 


Monuments, Mayan, dated, 123-125; 
sequence of Mayan determined 
by style of sculpture, 106-109. 
Moon, representations of the, 142. 


266 


Mosaic, feather, Aztecan, 242; 
feather, Tarascan, 244; masks 
and ceremonial objects, 89. 

Mosquito Indians, 43. 

Mound, artificial, at Copan, 77, 147; 
at Cholula, 80; at Cuicuiles, 49, 
51. 

Mounds, at Atzcapotzaleo, 47; 
foundation for temples, 77; 
Mayan, 146; at Monte Alban, 
152, 157; Tarascan, 244; Za- 
potecan, 160. 

Mountains, Mexico 
America, 14-16. 

Music, Aztecan, 240-242, 

Musical instruments, Aztecan, 240— 
241. 

Mythology, Aztecan, 204, 217, 229, 
232-233; Mayan and Aztecan, 
229. 

Myths, cosmogonic, 232-233. 


and Central 


Nahuan linguistie stock, distribu- 
tion of, 33, 203. 

Naranjo, 75, 108, 147. 

Nasea, 252. 

National Stone, Aztecan, 218, 220. 

Negative painting, 46, 66, 184-185, 

187, 252. 

New Fire Ceremony, Aztecan, 218; 

Toltecan, 173. 

Nezahualeoyotl, 204, 239. 

Niquiras, 34. 

Nose form, Indians of Mexico and 
Central America, 44. 

Noserings, on archaic figurines, 57. 

Notation system, Mayan, 111, 118- 
121. 

Numbers, Aztecan, 227, 234; May: 
an, 118-121; Mexican system 
of, 227-229; Zapotecan system 
of, 157. 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Observatories, astronomical, Mayan, 
137-139. 

Obsidian, Aztecan ornaments of, 
243. 

Ochpaniztli, eleventh feast of the 
year, 236. 

Olin, Aztecan day sign, 214, 217, 
218. 

Olmeca, 154-156, 187. 

Gmeteuctli, Lord of Duality, 231, 
233. 

Organization, political, Mayan, 201; 
social Aztecan, 209-213. 

Ornaments, precious and semi-pre- 
cious stones, Aztecan, 243; 
shown on archaic figurines, 57. 

Otomi, 36, 189, 203, 245. 


Pachtli, twelfth month, Aztecan, 
237-238. 

Paddle-shaped stones, Totonacan, 
167. 


Painting, archaic figurines, 57, 64; 
archaic pottery, 61; body, 
shown on archaie figurines, 58; 
on Mayan pottery, 87; nega- 
tive, on pottery, 46, 66, 284— 
185, 187, 252; Zapotecan pot- 
tery, 160. 

Palaces, structure of Mayan, 78-79. 

Palenque, 75, 76, 83, 146, 156. 

Palmate stone, 168. 

Pantheon, Mayan, 98-103. 

Papantla, pyramid at, 167, 169. 

Peregrinations, Aztecan, 205-207. 

Peresianus Codex, 128. 

Period, defined, in Mayan time 
count, 113; glyphs, Mayan, 121, 
126. 

Permutation system, Aztecan, 238; 
Mayan, 111, 113-114. 


INDEX 


Perspective, in Mayan design, 94, 
o7. 

Peyote worship, Huichol and Tara- 
humare, 38. 

Phonetic use of signs, Mayan hier- 
oglyphs, 125, 127. 

Physical types, 42, 44. 


Pictographie hieroglyphs, Mayan, 
125. 

Piedras Negras, 75, 96, 105, 108, 
147. 

Pima, 36. 


Pipiles, 34, 157, 188. 

Place names, Aztecan, 225. 

Plants, food, cultivation of, in the 
New World, 51, 249-250. 

Poetry, Aztecan, 239-240. 

Polychrome pottery, Cholula, 180, 
182; Mayan, 87. 

Portraiture, in archaic art, 54, 58; 
in Mayan art, 94, 124; Toto- 
nacan art, 166. 

Post-Archaie Horizon, 68-71. 

Potato, cultivated in Peru, 52. 

Pottery, archaic, 46, 59, 61, 165; 
Atzeapotzaleo, 47: Aztecan, 
215, 242; from Cholula, 180, 
182, 246; Chorotegan, 191-193; 
cloisonné, San Juan Teotihua- 
can, 178; at Cuicuileo, 51; dis- 
tribution of, 63-64, 69, 70; La- 
candone, 41; Mayan, 85, 86, 
87-88; Mitla, 164-165; modern 
Mexican, 39; northwestern re- 
gion of Mexico, 183-184; poly- 
chrome, Cholula, 180, 182; 
polychrome, Mayan, 87-88; San 
Juan Teotihuacan, 178; with 
semi-glaze, 188-189; Zapotecan, 
160. 

Pouches, Valiente Indians, 40. 

Pre-Archaic Horizon, 68. 


267 


Priests, in Mayan art, 93; Zapo- 
tecan, 161. 

Protohistoric Period, Mayan _his- 
tory, 145-146. 

Pueblo Viejo, 23. 

Pulgue,- 38, 170. 

Pyramid, Cholula, 180-181; Mayan, 
78-79; Monte Alban, 157; San 
Juan ‘Teotihuacan, 175-176; 
Toltecan, 169, 170. 


Quetzalcoatl, 25, 149, 171, 205, 232; 
and the Toltec era, 171-175. 

Quichés, 151. 

Quinatzin, map, 203. 

Quirigua, 15, 75, 108, 141. 

Rank, among the Aztecs, 209-210. 

Rattles, Aztecan, 241. 

Religion, Aztecan, 229-232; as evi- 
denced by archaic art, 58; 
Isthmian region, 198; Lacan- 
done Indians, 41; Mayan, 99- 
103, 146, 201; Tolteean, 170; 
Zapotecan, 146. 

River systems, Mexico and Central 
America, 17-18. 

Roman-nosed God, Mayan, 98, 99, 
100. 

Roof comb, on Mayan buildings, 76, 
83, 109. 

Roofs, Mayan buildings, 81. 

Rooms, Mayan buildings, 79, 81, 
109. 

Rubber, uses of, 154. 

Ruins, Usumacinta Valley, 18. 

Rulers, Toltee, 171. 


Sacrifices, Aztecan, to the gods, 
201; human, 215, 219, 229; 
human, archaic horizon, 59; 


human, Aztecan, 229, 234, 235; 


268 


human, in sacred cenote, 28; 
human, shown on_ sculptures, 
188; human, Toltecan, 179; 
human, Zapotecan, 161. 

Sacrificial yokes, Totonacan, 
168. 

Saltillo blankets, 39. 

San Andres Tuxtla, 146, 153. 

San Blas Indians, 44. 

San Juan Teotihuacan, 169, 175- 
17D, 

San Miguel blankets, 39. 

Santa Lucia Cozumalhualpa, 187- 
189. 

Sculptural art, massive, 83-84. 

Sculptures, archaic, 61-63; common 
material for, 19; developments 
in, as a check to chronology, 
104; Mayan, Early Period, J46; 
Mayan, Middle Period, 147; 
San Juan Teotihuacan, 177; 
Santa Lucia Cozumalhualpa, 
188; sequence in style, 106— 
108; style, correlated with 
dates, 124-125; Tenochtitlan, 
242; at Tula, 179; wall, at Co- 
pan, 83; Zapotecan, 162. 

Second Empire, Mayan, 149, 195. 

Seibal, 75, 95. 

Seri, 36. 

Serpent, archaic pottery, 59, 61; 
in Chorotegan art, 190-191; 
conventional, of the Mayas, 91, 
92-93; heads, comparison of 
Mayan and Zapotecan, 156; 
heads, on Mayan buildings, 84; 
motive, importance in Mayan 
art, 89-93; in religion of the 
Mayas, 98. 

Shield stone, 

Sky God, 102. 

Slabs, sculptured stone, from Costa 


167, 


Cuernavaca, 216. 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


Rica, 192, 193, 194; Zapotecan, 
162. 

Smiling faces, Totonacan, 165-167. 

Social organization, Aztecan, 209- 
213. 

Songs, Aztecan, 239, 240. 

Southern Mexico, culture of, 245-- 
248. 

Spear-thrower, Tarascan, 244, 

Speech seroll, 188. 

Stability, Mayan buildings, 81. 

Stature, Indians of Mexico and 
Central America, 44. 

Stelae, Mayan, 84, 106; Zapotecan, 


15% 
Stocks, language, distribution of, 
32-36. 


Stone, collars, Totonacan, 167-168; 
great development of building 
in, Copan and Mitla, 19; seulp- 
ture in, 60-63; yokes, 167; 
Zapotecan art in, 160. 

Stratification, archaeological, at Atz- 
eapotzaleo, 47-48, 169; Mexi- 
ean sites, 45-46, 47-49; in Sal- 
vador, 49. 

Structure, two-roomed, Mayan, 79- 
81. 

Subtiaban stock, 36. 

Sumo Indians, culture of, 43. 

Sun God, Aztecan, 217, 231. 

Suns, sequence of, in Aztecan myth- 
ology, 233. 

Superstructures, 
ings, 83. 

Supplementary series, 123, 141, 142. 

Syllables, phonetic use of Mayan, 
125, 127. 

Symbolism, religious, Mayan, 95, 98, 
234. 


on Mayan _ build- 


INDEX 


Talamanea, 44. 

Tarahumare, 33, 36. 

Tarascan, culture, 244-245; stock, 
35. 

Taraseans, 44. 

Tattooing, shown on archaic figu- 
rines, 56, 58. 

Teepan, 208, 209, 212, 213, 215. 

Temple, of the Cross, model of, 76; 
enclosure, Tenochtitlan, 212, 
213, 215; structure of Mayan, 
iat ol. so;.0t the Sun, Az- 
teean, 217; at Xochicalco, 179. 

Temples, Mayan, 78-83, 109, 146, 
150; Mitla, 163-164; Tenoch- 
titlan, 212, 213, 215; Toltecan, 
170; Zapoteean, 157. 

Tenochtitlan, 25, 26, 27, 29, 34, 47, 
209, 210, 213, 219, 242. 

Teocentli, sacred maize, 51, 52. 

Teonanacatl, peyote, use of, 38. 

Teotihuacan, 157. 

Teotleco, twelfth month, Aztecan, 
237-238. 

Tepanecas, 47, 205, 209. 

Tepehuane, 33, 36. 

Teswin, 38. 

Teteocan, . 233. 

Teteoinnan, 236. 

Texcoco, 172, 195, 203, 204, 209, 
239. 

Textile, art, Cora and Huichol, 37; 
art, Mayan, 88; decoration, Az- 
tee, 243; designs, on archaic 
effigies, 58. 

Tezeatlipoca, feast of, 26. 

Tikal, 75, 83, 146, 148. 

Time, count, Aztecan,; 205; Mayan, 
111; Toltecan, 172; Zapotecan, 
161, 163. 

Time-relations, in New World eul- 
ture, 249-252. 


269 


Tizoe, stone of, 209, 215, 219-221. 

Tlachtli, Mexican ball game, 170, 
ee: 

Tlacopan, 209. 

Tlaloc, God of Rain, 58, 178, 215, 
230, 231. 

Tlalocan, 234. 

Tlappaneca, 189. 

Vlaxcala, 25, 27, 34, 44, 209. 

Tlotzin, map of, 203. 

Toltec, era, and Quetzalcoatl, 171- 


175. 

Toltecs, 110, 149, 154, 156, 169-171, 
203, 232. 

Tomb, cruciform, near Mitla, 158, 
164, 

Tona‘amatl, Aztecan, 113, 228, 238- 
239. 

Tonatiuh, the’ Sun god, 217,221, 
231. 

Topography, Mexico and Central 


America, 14-19. 

Totonacan, culture, 165-169; stock, 
35. 

Totonaecs, 187. 

Toxeatl, Aztecan month, 235. 

Traditions, Colombia and _ Peru, 
250; Mayan, 104. 

Transition Period, Mayan history, 
148-149. 

Trees, Mexico and Central America, 
21. 

Tribes, Indian, Mexico and Central 
America, 33, 34, 35, 36. 

Tribute, lists, Aztecan, 243; roll, 
200, 245; taken by Toltees, 
Les 

Tripod vessels, archaic period, 59. 

Tro-Cortesianus Codex, 128. 

Tropical year, 139. 

Tula, 1169; 173,179. 

Tulum, 150, 151. 


270 


Tun, defined, 139. 

Tuxtla Statuette, 146, 153. 

Turquoise, Aztee work in, 243. 

Two-Headed Dragon, 93, 100, 101, 
102, 105, 108. 

Tzendals, 44. 

Tzintzuntzan, Tarascan capital, 244. 

Tzolkin, defined, 113, 115, 117, 118; 
in Dresden Codex, 1383-1385; or- 
igin of, 113; permutation table, 
114. 


Uayeb period, Mayan, 115. 

Uaxactun, 139, 146, 148. 

Uinal, lunar month, 112. 

Universe, Aztecan conceptions of 
the, 232-234. 

Urns, Zapotecan funerary, 159-160. 

Uto-Aztecan languages, distribution 
of, 33-35. 

Uxmal, 149, 150; House of the Gov- 
ernor at, 82. 


Vault, Mayan buildings, 79. 

Venus, Aztecan festivals in connec- 
tion with, 239; calendar, May- 
an, 143-145, 146. 

Viceroys, Spanish, in Mexico, 31. 
Vigesimal system of counting, May- 
an, 118); 119. 
Voleanoes, Mexico 

America, 16, 19. 


and Central 


Wall construction, La Quemada, 
182-183; Mayan, 76, 79, 81-83; 
Mitla, 161, 164. 

War God, Aztecan, 219, 237; May- 
an, 108. 

War, importance in Aztecan organi- 


MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 


zation, 209-210; Toltecan, 170- 
171; 

Weapons, shown in archaic figurines, 
58. 

Weaving, shown in archaie figurines, 
57-58; Cora and Huichol, 37; 
Lacandone, 41; Mayan, 88; 
Tarasean, 244. 

Whistles, Aztecan, 241. 

Writing, hieroglyphic, Mayan, 73; 
Mayan and Aztecan, 125-128; 
Mexican, 223-229. 


Xealumkin, 134. 

Xipe, 178, 189, 232, 236. 
Xkichmook, 84. 
Xochicaleo, 157, 179. 
Xochimilco, 48, 207. 
Xolotl, 204. 


Yatacas, Tarascan mounds, 244. 

Yaqui, 44. 

Yaxchilan, 75, 83, 94, 102. 

Year, bearers, Cuicatecan, 246, 247; 
conventional, Mayan, 114-117; 
length of Mayan, 112; Mayan, 
the true, 139-140; symbol, 
southern Mexico, 245. 

Yellow fever, presence in Central 
America, 148. 

Yokes, sacrificial, 167; designs on, 
167, 168. 

Yum Kaax, Lord of the Harvest, 
103. 


Zapotecan stock, 35. 

Zapotecs, culture of, 44, 156-163. 

Zero, invention of sign for, Mayas, 
119. 

Zotzils, 211. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL HANDBOOKS AND 
GUIDE LEAFLETS 


The following may be secured from the American 
Museum of Natural History in New York City. If 
ordered by mail, add ten cents to list price of Hand- 
books and three cents to list price of Guide Leaflets 


for postage. 
HANDBOOKS 


North American Indians of the Plains. By Clark Wissler. Third 
Edition, 172 pages, maps and illustrations. Cloth, $1.00. 

Indians of the Southwest. By Pliny Earle Goddard. Fourth 
Edition, 205 pages, maps and illustrations. Cloth, $1.00. 

Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. By Her- 
bert J. Spinden. Third Edition, 270 pages, map and illustrations. 
Cloth, $1.00. 

Indians of the Northwest Coast. By Pliny Earle Goddard. Sec- 
ond Edition. In Press. Cloth, $1.00. 

Peoples of the Philippines. By A. L. Kroeber. Second Hdition, 
244 pages, maps and illustrations. Cloth, $1.00. 

Old Civilizations of Inca Land. By Charles W. Mead. 117 pages, 
map and illustrations. Cloth, $1.00. 

Essentials of Anthropometry. By L. R. Sullivan. Revised Edi- 
tion, by H. L. Shapiro. 83 pages, and illustrations. Cloth, $1.00. 

The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record. By L. Leland 
Locke. 84 pages, and illustrations. Cloth, $3.00. 

Peoples of Asiatic Russia. By Waldemar Jochelson. 277 pages, 
maps and illustrations. Paper, $2.50. 


GUIDE LEAFLETS 


The Indians of Manhattan Island and Vicinity. By Alanson 
Skinner. Fourth Edition, 63 pages, and illustrations. Paper, 20 
cents. 

Peruvian Art. A Help for Students of Design. By Charles W. 
Mead. Fifth Edition, 24 pages, and illustrations. Paper, 10 cents. 

Indian Beadwork. By Clark Wissler. Second Edition, 31 pages, 
and illustrations. Paper, 20 cents. 

Basketry Designs of the Mission Indians. By A. L. Kroeber. 
Second Edition, 20 pages, and illustrations. Paper, 15 cents. 

Indian Costumes in the United States. By Clark Wissler. 32 
pages, and illustrations. Paper, 15 cents. 

The Maoris and Their Arts. By Margaret Mead. 38 pages, and 
illustrations. Paper, 15 cents. 

Pottery of the Southwestern Indians. By Pliny Earle Goddard. 
30 pages, and illustrations. Paper, 15 cents. 


271 


Ih 


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